With some good planning and good luck, you might be able to make a viewing of the Aurora Borealis happen for a special group.The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is nothing short of spectacular, filling the night sky with incredible colors. It occurs only in certain places, only at certain times of year, only late at night, and only at nature's whim.
Whether the Aurora can be seen depends on where you are and how much geomagnetic activity is occurring at the time. Prime time is December through February around midnight on a clear night.
Fortunately, there are a number of destinations that are both remote and civilized where your group can participate in a great meeting and witness nature's best light show.
The 325-room Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, owned by Princess Cruises, does almost all of its meeting and incentive business during Aurora Borealis seasonthe rest of the year, it's booked up with Princess Cruise guests.
"Between the months of November and March, the statistic is that if guests stay in Fairbanks for at least three nights, they have a better than 70 percent chance of seeing the Northern Lights," Sales Manager Helen Renfrew says. For guests who can't stay up late every night, the resort offers "Northern Lights Wake-up Calls" to alert them if the lights kick up in the middle of the night.
The 400-room Westmark Fairbanks Hotel, owned by Holland America, is another top spot in Fairbanks for groups. For guests who will be watching the skies at night, it provides hot beverages, snacks, and hand warmers. "Do not forget the hand warmers!" says Regional Sales Manager Shelley McCool. The hotel arranges midnight shuttles to the Chena Hot Springs Resort outside the city for prime viewing, and has also organized dog-mushing or snowmobiling excursions to see the Northern Lights.
For a homegrown Alaska experience, there's River's Edge Resort outside of Fairbanks, owned by third-generation Alaskans Steve Frank and Linda Anderson. Situated on the banks of the Chena River, it offers 86 deluxe private cottages for groups of up to 100.
In Anchorage, four-year-old Salmon Berry Tours arranges Aurora Borealis viewing experiences for groups. The typical trip starts with pickup at any hotel in the Anchorage area and a two-hour drive to the small town of Talkeetna for a warming late-night dinner at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, followed by a midnight snowshoe walk to see the lights. On request, an astronomer can join the group to provide expert info. "Some groups make this an overnight trip, and then go mushing in the morning," says tour operator Candice McDonald. "Because there's really no way to know for sure that you're going to see the lights, the tour comes with a gift of a Northern Lights DVD, so even if we don't see them, guests have a bit of the magic to take home."
For groups traveling from the east coast, Europe's Nordic countries can be a more convenient destination.
Just five hours by plane (there's regular air service from Boston, New York, Minneapolis, and Orlando) Iceland is an accessible "exotic" destination. Reykjavik will open the 161,500-sf Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre late this year, and it already offers hotels such as the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, with more than 250 guest rooms, and the 314-room Grand Hotel Reykjavik.
In Norway, the northern city of Tromso, easily reached by a quick flight from Oslo, is an ideal spot for viewing the Northern Lights. Home to a convention center that can accommodate more than 3,000 attendees, Tromso also has major business hotels such as the Radisson SAS Hotel and the Scandic Hotel Tromso. The local tourism office, Visit Tromso, can provide a long list of local outfitters that run nightly Northern Lights viewing tours in season. Some include dinner, some include dogsledding or snowshoeing, and some include viewing from a boat in the water.
Remind attendees to pack warm clothes (make woolen socks or a Polartec fleece hat a giveawaythe group will love it) and prepare for a meeting they won't ever forget.
Originally published Feb. 1, 2009For more ideas, tips, and tools for better meetings and events,
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