WICHITA
Kansas' largest city boasts western heritage, terrific weather, and vibrant cultural and culinary scenes -- not to mention more than 8,000 hotel rooms within the city and a wealth of meeting spaces, including the more than 200,000-square-foot Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center. Here are a few must-see places while visiting this hot spot.
DAY 1: CULTURAL EXCURSIONS
2:00 PM
Wander along the Arkansas River, the setting of Wichita's Museums on the River district, where a range of attractions -- such as the Wichita Art Museum, Old Cowtown Museum, and Mid-America All-Indian Center -- sit, surrounded by more than 50,000 tulips. If your group needs to get down to business, all of these venues offer some kind of meeting space, whether the stunning outdoor terraces and gardens at Botanica, or the 3,000-square-foot WaterWay Hall at Exploration Place.
7:00 PM
Bring your attendees to a show at the Wichita Grand Opera or Music Theatre Wichita (featuring top-caliber productions from throughout the country and world) -- or hold your own event at one of these cultural hubs.
DAY 2: GET OUTSIDE
11:00 AM
Start the day with a hike or stroll at one of the city's more than 125 parks and greenways, such as the Pawnee Prairie Park (full of wildlife like foxes, deer, and over 100 species of birds) or the 119-acre O.J. Watson Park (which includes a 40-acre lake).
2:00 PM
If your attendees are golfing types, give them a leisurely afternoon on the links at one of the city's five public golf courses, including Flint Hills National Golf Club (ranked as one of America's Top 100 Golf Courses by Golf Digest), Perry Dye-designed Auburn Hills, or the more exclusive-feeling Sand Creek Station in nearby Newton, KS.
5:00 PM
Hold an evening event at the Tanganyika Wildlife Park. Dedicated to conservation and stewardship of endangered species, this park provides unusual event spaces just steps from stunning creatures like black rhinoceros and white Bengal tigers.
DAY 3: GO WEST
1:00 PM
Head to Historic Delano, where cowboys once cooled their heels and visited the local saloons and brothels at the end of the Chisholm Trail. Much of the town has been preserved, and attendees seeking local shopping or enticing galleries and stores need look no further.
9:00 PM
No trip to Wichita is complete without a visit to The Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot-tall steel statue of a Native American chief, towering above the intersection of the Big Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. At 9 p.m. each night (7 p.m. beginning Nov. 1), large pots in the river surrounding the figure ignite as part of the Ring of Fire show.
This article appears in the October 2016 issue of Successful Meetings.