Wanted: A Place to Hold a Corporate Meeting in Wash DC

January 23, 2007 9:45 PM

Any suggestions for a hotel and/or conference center in the DC Metro area for a 3-day corporate meeting? The meeting must take place the last week of March and there will be about 80 attendees. The big hotels are booked. Where can my colleagues have their meeting?

The boss asked me to find facilities for a meeting. Preferred location would be near Dulles Airport but since everything seems to be booked he is willing to extend the area. I've tried every Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton. Finding sleeping rooms for all of these people is not a problem. I'm having trouble finding a venue that has space available for the meeting.

The venue can be as far north as Baltimore, as far west as Hagerstown, MD and now I'm thinking we'll add Annapolis into the mix. Downtown DC is ok as is Leesburg, VA and everything in between. Price is not a big deal.

Are there any "outside the box" places to consider? Example: I know the Goethe Institute in DC rents space for meetings. I plan to contact them tomorrow but that's the only place I know of that provides space rental. Any others?

posted by Soda-Da to Travel & Transportation around Washington, DC (10 answers total)

Galludet has a pretty nice conference center, I don't know what the conditions are for using it. I've also held big slightly fancy meetings at the University of MD College Park facility. Sorry, I'm too lazy to Google the details for you right now.
posted by crabintheocean at 10:02 PM on January 23, 2007

Have you only tried Marriot, Hyatt, and Hilton? You might also try Westin. They have at least two in D.C, Westin Grand and Westin Embassy Row, that might be adequate. I've never stayed at either myself, however.
posted by RichardP at 10:39 PM on January 23, 2007

I just went to a corporate meeting at the holliday inn select in chantilly. The company usually holds this particualr meeting at a much more high-brow location, but everything was booked for that date and one of the VPs required a location close to dulles. The meeting space was pretty nice and the hotel did a good job with AV requests, catering etc.

Another option is the dulles expo and conference center. They have classroom-type meeting rooms, etc.

Yet another option is the Executive Conference and Training Center. I've never been here and only came across it when googling for the exact name of the expo center.
posted by necessitas at 11:29 PM on January 23, 2007

Since you said you already checked around Dulles, you've probably already looked into this one, but when I worked in DC I organized several conferences (100-120 people) at the Westfields Marriott. The staff there were awesome and the facilities were fantastic, but it was a bit pricey ($300/head, but that included all meals, meeting facilities and refreshments).

We also held a couple of smaller ones at the Renaissance Mayflower, and I've attended a couple there recently. Very nice, also good staff.

The Hyatt Crystal City in Arlington also had excellent service, but the facilities were fairly generic.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 3:59 AM on January 24, 2007

Landsdowne is nice, as is Wye River. Neither is cheap though.
posted by TheRaven at 5:19 AM on January 24, 2007

I work with people who do this sort of thing for a living. I'd be happy to help you find something. Email in profile.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:59 AM on January 24, 2007

I have a good friend who does catering and such for Jury's on Dupont Circle, which is a fantastic location. Email in profile if you're interested.
posted by kdar at 7:26 AM on January 24, 2007

Funny, I was going to suggest the Jury's as well, kdar. We do an event there every year, and they are great.

I went to an event at the Tyson's Corner location of the Executive Conference and Training Centers that necessitas mentioned. It was nice enough, albeit fairly generic, but I'm not sure you can fit 80 people into any of the rooms at that location. The Dulles one may be larger, though.

If you are looking for something different, I have been eying the House of Sweden event center for one of my future events. It's part of the brand new Swedish Embassy, but they rent conference and exhibit space too.
posted by gemmy at 1:18 PM on January 24, 2007

Have you tried any of the Kimpton hotels? I just clicked on the link for the Hotel Palomar in Dupont and they seem to have some meeting space. I was actually rather surprised at this, as the Kimpton hotels are all "boutique"-ish and such.
posted by echo0720 at 1:57 PM on January 24, 2007

Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton VA, about an hour away, is pretty nice.
posted by Wet Spot at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2007