PGA at Whistling Straits

This is MAJOR! Planning the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits

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In a few short weeks all eyes in the world of golf will turn to the beautifully sculpted, windswept shores of Lake Michigan at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The challenging links-style Pete Dye masterpiece, considered one of the top golf courses in the U.S. and top-rated worldwide, will host the 2015 PGA Championship, August 10 to 16.
As golf championships go, it’s a big one. Attendance this year is expected to be in the 200,000 range with fans arriving from around the world for the week-long tournament, culminating on Sunday, August 16 with the crowning of the 2015 PGA Champion and the awarding of the coveted Wanamaker Trophy.
From the event planners’ perspective, planning has been ongoing for almost two years. Kohler and PGA teams orchestrating the details are not new to the task, though. The Straits course hosted PGA Championships in 2004 and 2010.
Read more here…
Originally published in Wisconsin Meetings Magazine

http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=261009&p=46

Century Event Barn

The Lure of the Land: Rustic Venues Are Fitting for an Authentic Wisconsin Experience

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A red dairy barn tucked into a bucolic valley on a winding country road is the very essence of Wisconsin. The rough-hewn, towering structures, built by European immigrants in the mid-to-late 1800’s and early Twentieth Century, sheltered crops and then small herds of ubiquitous black-and-white dairy cows.
Over the years, outdated barns were abandoned, and now scores have been granted new life, grandly transformed into high-demand, book-it-well-in-advance event spaces.
Diverse groups are drawn to creatively repurposed barns because of the rugged stone foundations, weathered boards and rough-sawn timbers in elegantly simple soaring spaces. Weekend barn weddings have been popular for a few years. Now, savvy barn owners also offer weekday spaces for meetings, seminars, company summer picnics, client receptions, reunions, retreats, anniversary celebrations, sports events, and more. The land lures once again.
Read more here…
Originally published in Wisconsin Meetings Magazine
http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=248155&p=56

Grand Geneva Rock Wall

Mind + Body + Meetings: Add Wellness to Meetings for An Improved Work-Life Balance

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Call it the mind-body connection or a holistic approach to healthcare, employee wellness has become an entrenched concept in many corporate environments, with positive results.

Promoting healthy workplace habits has shown measureable benefits in lower absenteeism, higher productivity, improvement in overall work quality and lower health care costs for employers.

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Holy Wisdom Monastery

Spirit Lifting: Faith-Based Retreat Centers Offer Tranquil Settings for All Kinds of Groups

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The success of an offsite meeting or event depends in part on the site selected to host it. Wisconsin affords meeting planners a rich range of options, from city centric hotels and conference centers to lush resorts on impeccable golf courses and north woods lodges tucked along sparkling lakes.

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Italy – Secrets And A Wanderer’s Dream

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My love affair with all things Italian first blossomed when I was in college.

My roommate, a bubbly Italian from a tightly-knit neighborhood in Racine, Wisconsin invited me to meet her parents, immigrants from a tiny town in the hills of Tuscany.

Her family was a joyful and noisy bunch, welcoming me like a favorite child, stuffing me with homemade pastas and rich tomato sauce, crusty breads and decadent sweets.

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Saskatchewan – Tracking a Trophy in the Wilds

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The Misaw Lake Lodge brochure promised it all.

Trophy northern pike and lake trout, a chance at elusive Arctic grayling, a protected wilderness of peaceful beauty and a guest limit of just sixteen at a Saskatchewan fly-in lodge bumping up against the 60th Parallel, so far north that the last road ends 125 miles south.

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A Cape Cod Race Against A Kennedy

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image1-2I ran a race against Senator Ted Kennedy and beat him. And it had nothing at all to do with politics.

Pictures of the Kennedys aboard their sleek sailboats off the Cape Cod coast were ubiquitous: wind-blown hair, carefree smiles, gleaming white teeth. The Kennedys were known for their sailing prowess, and when it comes to sailboat races, they were avid competitors.

In a best-travel-memory race that pitted me, albeit unofficially, against a Kennedy, I took part in the biggest of the year in Cape Cod sailing circles, a three-day affair held each Memorial Day weekend.

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A Folk Game Lives On

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“During winter months when the water is low, I wade through river and creek beds around here. That’s when I find the best flint rocks,” explains Paul Davis as he and I chat at his favorite hangout deep in the lush rolling hills of southern Kentucky.

Paul was born and raised in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, population around 2,600, little more than a stone’s throw north of the Tennessee state line. Just about any day of the week you’ll find him at the Monroe County Super Dome, a place that isn’t quite super and doesn’t have a dome. It is a sports arena of sorts, but not what you’d expect.

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MadisonSkyline

It Can Take a Village (or City) to Land an International Event

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From the day the first of 1,150 attendees arrived in Madison, Wisconsin for the 19th annual Congress for the New Urbanism, the love fest was on. How Madison won the nod to host this impressive organization is a story of tenacity and a lot of collaborative effort. […]

Read More: Wisconsin Meetings – Fall 2012

0907Sundown

Out of the Box Venues: Meet in Great Spaces

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The furthest thing from Curtis Queck’s mind the day he went pheasant hunting in a scenic Spring Green, Wisconsin valley was finding a creative new place to hold company meetings. For Curt, it was just another great day in the woods. By day’s end, he was looking over the hunting lodge that hosted him from a very different perspective. […]

Read More: Wisconsin Meetings – Spring/Summer 2013