The sunny locale is also taking its place among the country's top destinations for conventions and company events. Meeting and seminar planners have discovered that Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City, in Collier County, now offer some of the nation's most attractive hotel-based conference facilities at resorts eager to meet their needs. And convention guests, from CEOs and corporate executives to public officials, enjoy gaining knowledge and professional contacts in a relaxed, tropical setting. The bottom line? Meetings in paradise make business sense when they improve creativity, productivity and everybody's morale.

Long known for its stunning natural beauty and abundance of golf courses, greater Naples has developed a reputation for sophistication and glamour in recent years. An influx of

affluent new residents-among them sports stars and Fortune 500 CEOs-has spurred the growth of cultural attractions, fine dining and shopping.

"Naples is not a sleepy place strictly for retired people," emphasizes Debi DeBenedetto, executive director of the Greater Naples Marco Island Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Our population has gotten younger and it's a very trendy place."

That means planners can choose from a variety of hotels and venues offering top-drawer amenities and services suitable for groups from small seminars to large conventions. The not-for-profit group is an information clearinghouse with an abundance of contacts. "We'll match a meeting planner's needs with a hotel or venue that can fill those needs," says DeBenedetto. "It could be an attraction, a restaurant or a hotel." The CVB also works with groups to plan events, from small parties to ambitious extravaganzas. They've even helped groups that decided to stage fundraisers, from choosing a theme to a local charity as the recipient.

The South Florida Meeting Professionals International of Miami recently chose the Naples area over the Florida Keys, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach for its August 2004 conference. The annual three-day, three-night event will host more than 250 meeting and event professionals from the Southeast. What convinced the meeting experts to hold

their meeting here? The CVB's expertise and work ethic, says Lauren Halpern, a certified meeting planner and vice president of administration for South Florida Meeting Professionals International. "The CVB works hard to fulfill the demand of every meeting proposal," she says. "We like to produce great events, and the CVB put together a beautiful presentation."

Halpern and other convention experts agree that the spectacular Southwest Florida setting adds to every event's appeal. Guests can enjoy miles of uninterrupted beaches, spas galore, fine dining, lively arts, golf, boating, fishing, museums, galleries and all sorts of special attractions, including world-class shopping along downtown's fabled Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South and in the eclectic antiques district at Central Avenue and 10th Street.

"Naples is a terrific find. They have great amenities. Once you work it as a planner, you go back. And there's plenty to do, so you can go back and repeat a program," Halpern says.

In the last several decades, the region has added a number of world-class facilities, such as The Registry Resort & Club, LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort, Hilton Naples & Towers and The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples. Today, accommodations range from grand hotels with expansive gathering spaces to cozy inns and resorts with tropical courtyards and beachy charm.

  As every meeting planner knows, top hotels attract top conventions, and the presence of hotels such as The Ritz-Carlton has helped to spur the growth of convention business here. "We have an outstanding relationship with The Ritz-Carlton worldwide, but we've been to The Ritz in Naples more than anywhere else," says Jeff Watts, director of programs that recognize outstanding General Motors dealers. He brings in 200 to 300 dealers at a time for four-day spring sessions. "These are very wealthy

people," he notes, and The Ritz excels at exceeding their expectations.

Watts schedules business meetings for his dealers in the mornings, then fills their afternoons with golf, sailing, backwater fishing and catamaran rides to catch sunsets or for island shelling. The experience always

provides a lasting impression, he says.

The Ritz-Carlton chain recently added a second Naples Ritz-Carlton, a golf resort with its own meeting and conference facilities.

Only one half-hour from downtown Naples, miles of crescent-shaped, white sand beaches envelop tropical Marco Island. Top facilities and accommodations help make Marco a prime place to mix business and pleasure. Visitors can enjoy sunset sailing trips, shelling excursions to deserted outer islands and, perhaps, team-building exercises on the wide stretch of sandy shoreline.

The area's largest meeting and conference center, at 60,000 square feet, is at the Marco Island Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa. And it's growing. Marriott is currently undergoing $60 million in upgrades and new construction, including a 24,000-square-foot spa that will open this fall. The Balinese-themed facility will offer treatment suites that have outdoor private balconies overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. "As a result we're getting a tremendous amount of business we wouldn't have received," explains Laurie Cardenuto, director of sales and marketing.

Convention activity is not limited to the glitzy corners of Collier County.

The lush, wet world of the Everglades is within easy reach of hotels in Naples and Marco Island. Visitors find the wilderness area perfect for half- and full-day excursions, including nature boardwalks, airboat rides and boat tours of Everglades National Park's mangrove estuaries. Alligators, dolphin and an array of wading birds are among the favorite wildlife sightings. There's also a selection of eclectic restaurants serving seafood and stone-crab claws in season fresh from the boat.

The Ivey House Inn is newly expanded with a screened-in pool and restaurant, which can be used for group activities. The staff here operates Everglades Eco Adventures-and can put together group team-building or social activities including kayak and canoe trips and driving tours into Big Cypress National Preserve. "We're just beginning to generate convention business," says Sandee Harraden, whose husband, David, owns the Ivey House. "We now have the facilities to accommodate that."

For betting types, there's the Seminole Casino in Immokalee, a small community situated among citrus groves and produce farms, about 45 minutes from Naples. Visitors can try their luck at video gaming, poker and bingo, and dine in the restaurant. The bingo room can be converted to meeting space, says Carol LosaDelara, director of marketing.

The Naples area is growing in international cachet, says Saba Tours' Giovanna Puccia, who manages three- to four-week stays at the Hilton Naples and Towers from September through July. "People from the United Kingdom absolutely love it. It's a territory that's quite different for them, and

they find it fascinating," Puccia says. "It's a little secret, a lovely,

multifaceted place." But as more convention attendees experience Collier County, the secret is getting out, says Kerry Mitruska, group sales director at the Registry Resort, which also recently underwent a major expansion and renovation.

"Consider a 300- to 400-person incentive group plus spouses. All of them going home raving about the destination creates all sorts of spin-offs," he says.

At least a dozen off-site locations showcase theater, the arts, nature, history, adventure or gambling, and planners are adept at using these attractions to spice up events. At Caribbean Gardens: The Zoo in Naples, guests can enjoy a lavish dinner set amid a tropical jungle and exotic animals. Then there's Naples' famed Philharmonic Center for the Arts, one of the most beautiful performing arts centers in the country, where groups often dine elegantly on the stage; occasionally they've been surprised there by the arrival of a celebrity performer or even the elusive Phantom.

Such over-the-top attractions are a major plus for pleasing those who "are used to being wowed," says Ontario-based freelance trip director Ann Clarke. She manages meetings and programs for incentive companies, which develop programs to reward top-performing employees. For one such group, Clarke wanted "a top-of-the-line event," and chose Ngala, a wildlife retreat on 35 acres about 30 minutes from Naples. "It was a fabulous night in Africa with trainers with chimpanzees, leopards and more," she says. The guests dined under elegant, African colonial-style tents, surrounded by animals and artifacts. Her hard-to-impress guests were used to extravagant

entertainment, but they indeed were "wowed," she says.

Rochelle Ferguson, a California-based meeting planner with Creative

Connections, agrees. She arranges meetings, golf tournaments, spa days and special events nationwide. "I can go any place in the nation and I want the experience to be memorable. I would go back in a New York minute," she says of the Naples area.

The increased convention business has prompted a number of longtime Naples facilities to expand, among them

the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, which offered 12,000 square feet of meeting space when it opened in 1946. In 2000, the resort completed a new, 22,000-square-foot conference center and spa on the edge of its 18-hole golf course. Now 50 percent of the hotel's business is in meetings and

conventions, says Michelle McLeod, director of sales and a certified meeting planner. "The group meeting market is a segment that is growing," she says.

The Marriott on Marco recently finished remodeling its 727 guest rooms and 54 suites. "Our future is incredibly bright," says the Marriott's Cardenuto.. The Marriott's sheer size can attract major conventions, as well as smaller events. And if it is booked, there are other hotels nearby to handle the overflow. For example, the Hilton Marco Island is a four-diamond property with oversized guestrooms, a tropical pool and meeting facilities perfect for small to mid-sized group meetings. Olde Marco Island Inn & Suites offers beautifully decorated one- and two -bedroom suites; a popular restaurant in the original inn dates to 1883. The Radisson Suite Beach Resort offers one-, two- and three-bedroom suites, perfect for attendees. And Marco Beach Ocean Resort is an all-suite hotel in the process of expanding its meeting facilities. It offers upscale Italian

dining at Sale e Pepe overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and five-star

service throughout the hotel.

In addition to a wealth of meeting space, accommodations and special activities, Southwest Florida provides

excellent transportation and easy access to convention sites. Most off-site activities are less than 20 minutes away. U.S. 41 (also called the Tamiami Trail) and Interstate 75 are the main corridors. The interstate also heads to Florida's east coast through the Everglades along picturesque Alligator Alley. Naples Municipal Airport, where dozens of private jets and other aircraft land daily, is minutes from the city's downtown. Marco Island Executive Airport and Immokalee Regional Airport have jet-sized runways and are convenient to Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades.

Most important, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers is within easy reach via I-75. Various types of transportation, from shuttle buses to limos, whisk visitors to the Naples area from the airport, which is in the midst of a major expansion. "We have many non-stop flights and a few new airlines," says DeBenedetto. "It's very convenient."

And that makes it even easier for meeting planners to choose Southwest Florida. "Naples ranks as one of the top locations in the world as far as bringing in premiere meetings," agrees Sean Mullen, director of sales and marketing at LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort. "People worldwide now know the area, and the address of Naples is an attraction in and of itself."