Welcome to our blog series: Everything We Know About…
Selecting the right city and venue for your event can literally make or break the experience for your attendees, speakers, and partners. Location is much more than a hotel or event space. It is about selecting a backdrop that will bring your brand to life and deliver messages and memories to attendees with optimal impact.
At Trademark, we go before you go, so that we really know. We’ll explore destination cities from our own experience and give you straight-talk pros and cons to help you prioritize and select the right city and venue for your biggest days.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville offers an incredibly rich music scene, warm hospitality, southern cuisine, historically significant locations and experiences, arts and museums, and perfect weather nearly year-round. It’s the heart of America’s country music industry, and the proving grounds for up-and-coming artists. For corporate events, we think it is one of the most interesting cities, offering the ability to craft bespoke experiences for attendees that will draw them to your event and endear them to your brand. It’s easily accessible from anywhere in the U.S., and is a simple city to navigate with its walkable, clean streets. It’s no wonder that everyone wants to go there.
Hotels
Selecting the right hotel partner (or group of partners) is essential. Considerations include size of your event, availability of event spaces, location relative to desired off-site activities, cost, and probably most important, the relationship with hotel management to ensure successful execution of every detail.
Trademark has long-established relationships with the largest and most successful hotel brands in the world so we can negotiate the best rates and often gain access to venues that can be hard to secure. For large groups, we recommend Hyatt, Marriott, & Westin brands, each one having a variety of properties in the Nashville area. Nashville can accommodate a group of any size.
Many of the largest events use the Gaylord at Opryland, which has over 3,000 hotel rooms and attached convention and activity facilities. For mid-sized groups and events, luxury and boutique hotels including Hermitage, Four Seasons, or Ritz Carlton are great choices. These properties often offer extra touches that set the standard for quality, service, and luxury. Nashville is growing rapidly, with over a dozen new properties slated to open in coming months. Since the hotel is often your event’s home base, locking this down early is the first, most important step.
Event Production Spaces and Resources
Many hotels serve as both the home base for guest accommodations and the venue for major parts of event production including general sessions, break-outs, special events and meetings, meals, parties, and entertainment activities. Trademark has established relationships with the production side of the house in every hotel and venue we work with to ensure that production quality is the highest possible.
There are dozens of other unique spaces in Nashville that can be transformed into event venues: museums, plantations, sports venues, and private mansions can be converted stunning venues for certain types of event components such as dinners, private entertainment, team building, special celebrations, intimate meetings or gatherings, and sometimes, even general sessions.
Nashville has venues that can accommodate virtually any size of event. The Nashville Music City Center can accommodate 20,000+, while the Gaylord can accommodate 15,000+ with 7000 sq feet of convention space. Venues such as the Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Opry, seats 2,300, and smaller spaces that hold from 500 to 1000 are plentiful throughout the city.
Finally, Trademark has access to the industry’s best videographers, photographers, AV and lighting specialists, sound engineers and production staff in Nashville. Having executed very successful programs in the city, we have existing relationships with many local professionals and specialists to support your event.
Offsite Activities and Adventures
Nashville offers interesting off-site activities and adventures that you can’t get in other major cities. We have created team-building activities, celebrations and parties in memorable locations across Nashville and surrounding areas. Events range from outdoors adventures to special audiences with musicians and performers to tours of the iconic Country Music Hall of Fame, Graceland, Jack Daniels Distillery, Art and Mural Tours, and Civil War tours, or small venue tours with local singer/songwriters. Trademark can craft great experiences that include everything from transportation, tickets and swag for your attendees.
Downtown Nashville also offers walkable restaurants, bars, music venues and entertainment in the Gulch District which is the epicenter for business and adjacent to Honkytonk Row so guests will have plenty of opportunity to get out and experience the endless entertainment options that Nashville is known for.
Trademark’s Take on Nashville
Nashville won’t disappoint. It’s a great city with plenty of options and opportunities to make your event special and unique. It’s highly accessible and easy to walk and engage with the local people, music scene, entertainment and restaurants. The one caution: Book Early. Nashville is very popular and the best venues book up quickly. While we are able to navigate the hotels, entertainment venues and professional network available in Nashville, the earlier an event is booked, the more likely it will be that you are able to secure the components you want at the best prices. We are aware of any incentives or savings offered by the city or the venues in the city. Trademark is a GO for Nashville.
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