For your home or meeting, there's no place like Scottsdale.

It's a perfect day: The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and your members are smiling during their educational sessions, eager to get in a round of golf before the evening's festivities.

No, you aren't dreaming ... You're just in Scottsdale.

An Ideal Meeting Spot

"Scottsdale is an ideal place for our annual meetings," says Karen Johnson, meeting planner for the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, Inc., Naperville, Illinois. "We hold our meetings the third week of October. Our weather is guaranteed."

Guaranteed?

"When you go to places like Florida, California, Texas, your weather is not guaranteed," she explains. "The range can go so far up and down - mostly down - that when you're doing outside activities, especially at night, you face the possibility of having to move them inside. I've never had to do that in Arizona. The weather is one thing I don't have to think about."

Johnson finds Scottsdale's blue skies so irresistible that she recently relocated her home office from Iowa to - you guessed it - Scottsdale. "I really don't have to go into my office in Naperville at all. Knowing how much I love Scottsdale and that area, I decided just to move there. I love the weather. I love the way I feel when I'm there."

Another association transplant who succumbed to the lure of Scottsdale living is Baron Glassgow, CAE, director of field services for the National Propane Gas Association, Lisle, Illinois. When he worked out of a regional office in Salt Lake City, Glassgow traveled to Scottsdale three or four times a year for meetings, each time thinking, "What a great place to live." Impressed by the city's beauty, he eventually negotiated a relocation with his boss and has now lived in Scottsdale six years.

"I grew up in the Midwest and when I thought of Arizona I thought of sand dunes and wide open desert," he says. "It's not that way at all. Desert foliage blooms at a different time of year than normal foliage. So in the winter months, when some people like to be here, you've got phenomenal blooming cactus - just gorgeous native desert plants."

A Magnet for Meetings

Of course, it takes more than a beautiful setting and ideal climate to create a successful meeting. Here are six other reasons why Scottsdale acts as a magnet for association meetings.

1. Accommodations suit every taste. Would your members like the once-in-a-lifetime privilege of staying in an exclusive five-star establishment, or are they more apt to opt for a budget-wise family favorite? Scottsdale offers the full spectrum - more than 50 resorts and hotels featuring 10,000-plus guest rooms - and more properties are on the way.

"We are experiencing a building boom," explains Rachel Sacco, director, convention/tourism division, Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.

One word to the wise: Don't make the mistake of calling Scottsdale's properties "hotels." The preferred term is "resorts."

"They are really much more than hotels," Glassgow explains. "They're gorgeous resorts with fantastic grounds. Some are on lakes. Others back up to the desert ... Scottsdale holds the widest variety of meeting facilities of any city that I have ever visited."

2. The golf is good. With 131 courses, your members could golf every day for four months and never play the same course twice. "If you put all the golf courses together, it would equal the state of Rhode Island," insists Jason H. Grandon, events coordinator, Arabian Horse Association of Arizona, Scottsdale.

For variety, members can try out two new public courses designed by Ben Crenshaw, world-renowned golfer and two-time Masters champion, and Bill Coore. One imitates a Scottish course with angular holes; the other is similar to a 1920s course with lake and sycamore trees throughout the fairways.

Or perhaps your members would prefer a par-three hole marked by a waterfall cascading into a lake? Or playing at night in the desert using fluorescent golf balls and tees? Either can be arranged.

3. Members want to go there. "Scottsdale is not a difficult sell for potential attendees because the weather is basically always good, the shopping is good, the food is good, and if you have any golfers among you, you know the golfing is good," says Wayne Mininger, executive vice president, National Onion Association, Greeley, Colorado. "Let's face it, life is good in that part of Arizona."

The problem you may run into is that your members - after experiencing a Scottsdale meeting - may want to go back. Frequently. Even if it means changing your association's meeting-rotation schedule.

By popular demand, Johnson takes her meetings back to Scottsdale every couple of years. "My association has just fallen in love with that area," she admits. She attributes this to the golf - 260 members recently participated in a scramble over tWO courses - as well as the area's restaurants, tours, and close proximity of everything to everything.

4. Transportation is convenient. Using any of the major carriers, your members can fly into Sky Harbor International Airport and be in downtown Scottsdale in 20 minutes. Sky Harbor, the 12th-busiest international airport for passenger service, accommodates 70,136 passengers each day. Once they arrive at their hotels, members can hop on Ollie the Trolley, a service reminiscent of the old trolley cars, to visit the malls and other attractions.

5. Adventure awaits. Whether they favor wandering through an art gallery or saddling up a horse, shopping for Native American crafts or sailing across the sky in a hot-air balloon, playing tennis or exploring the Arizona Sonoran Desert in an off-road jeep, your members will find plenty to occupy their free time.

"The good news for our association customers is that our destination is adding new attractions that will make Scottsdale even more enticing," says Sacco. She points to the expansion of the downtown mall with Nordstrom as the anchor store and transformation of the adjacent canal into a major visitor attraction featuring landscaping, special seating, lighting, public art, and hotels with meeting space.

6. The meeting decor is ready when you are. Forget spending a lot of money on elaborate decorations for your special events. In Scottsdale, Mother Nature provides the best backdrop for your outdoor functions.

"We have the best sunsets in the world," says Jason Grandon. "Picture looking over a long desert that's a little dusty. Picture several hundred different colors wrapped in the sky. The cactuses will be black silhouettes. It's just like you see on postcards."

Johnson compares running a meeting in Scottsdale to running one in Hawaii. Both destinations offer instant decor. The way she figures it: Association members go both places to see the spectacular scenery - why not let them?

RELATED ARTICLE: Six Tips for a Successful Meeting in Scottsdale

You've selected Scottsdale as your next meeting destination. Here are six tips for making it your best-ever event:

1. Inspect the sites. Executives who haven't held meetings in Scottsdale often assume this city is way out their price range. Not so.

"Apprehensive" is how Wayne Mininger, executive vice president, National Onion Association, Greeley, Colorado, felt when his meetings committee voted to hold a convention in Scottsdale. The first thing that crossed my mind is, "What am I going to do about the cost? How am I going to keep this affordable?"

Working with the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, he scheduled a planning trip to preview properties. To his surprise, he found several hotels with the right location, and the right ambiance, as well as the right price.

"Bottom line, when it was all said and done, I gained confidence after my first trip that Scottsdale can be done on a budget. It doesn't have to be a real expensive meeting. You can do a wonderful convention in Scottsdale at moderate prices if you do it heads up."

2. Spice up functions with the city's southwestern flavor. Mininger recalls his association's trip to Pinnacle Peak, which is about 30 minutes north of Scottsdale, where six busloads of members saw a gunfight, stomped their feet to country music, and devoured thick, juicy T-bones charred on a mesquite grill, along with baked potatoes, baked beans, salad, and rolls. The evening's only complication was the establishment's strict enforcement of its dress code: Absolutely no ties.

"There's not a lot of formality in cowboy life," he says. "It's their policy when anybody shows up in a tie, they cut it off about three inches from the knot ... and staple it to the rafters."

Armed with this information in advance, Mininger knew exactly what to do - he passed out ties on the bus trip to his unsuspecting members. "We added a lot of ties to their collection," he says. "It was great fun."

3. Get local assistance. Richard A. Ungerer, executive director, Organization Development Network, South Orange, New Jersey, relied on a local network of members to help plan and design his association's annual conference. Their familiarity with Scottsdale's heritage, as well as current attractions, contributed to making it "a fabulous meeting for us."

4. Take a couple of extra days to enjoy the valley. "It's a waste to come in here and do a meeting and leave," says Jason H. Grandon, events coordinator, Arabian Horse Association of Arizona, Scottsdale. "There is so much to do. Get a rental car and drive up to Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon or downtown Scottsdale. Bring the family, too. This is definitely a family-oriented city."

5. Customize your contract. Because the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute holds its meeting in October, when Scottsdale golf courses are often reseeding, Karen Johnson specifies that the association's designated golf course be in tip-top shape. This meeting planner also inserts a no-construction clause in her contract.

"The properties are growing so quickly, and they're all renovating and trying to keep up with each other.... We have the choice of canceling if construction would interfere with our conference," she says.

6. Consider the off and shoulder seasons. "You can stay at a fantastic resort, yet not have to pay high rates," says Scottsdale-based Baron Glassgow, CAE, director of field services, National Propane Gas Association, Lisle, Illinois. He points out that the Arizona Propane Gas Association typically has its convention in the summer.

"We can stay at a gorgeous four-star resort that in the winter would cost $300 or $400 per night. We can usually get those rooms for less than $100 per night."

RELATED ARTICLE: An Interview With Mayor Sam Kathryn Campana

Running a City and an Association Take Similar Skills

Sam Kathryn Campana is one politician who understands associations. Before her election as Scottsdale mayor in 1996, she was the executive director of the Arizonans for Cultural Development, a 501 (c)(3) organization. This experience, she said in a recent interview with ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT, helped prepare her for her current responsibilities.

How does running an association compare to running a city?

I have often said that a lot of the skills I use in running Scottsdale, a city of almost 200,000, come from having run an association and being head of a nonprofit board of directors, trying to keep 50 people from very different backgrounds happy, involved, and committed to the cause, explaining complex legislative and public policy issues. Having done that for 13 years helps me today in working with the city council, staff members, and citizens.

Why are association meeting planners drawn to Scottsdale as a meeting site? Why do they keep coming back?

The first draw is, obviously, the weather. We don't try to fool ourselves about that. We have over 300 sunny, beautiful days in Scottsdale in the valley.

It certainly helps that Scottsdale is a unique and special city - we think it's the best city in America. We're nestled right here at the foot of the McDowell Mountains, so there are all kinds of outdoor things to do - biking, hiking, golf, swimming, tennis - all important to people who are planning their meetings.

What's the one thing association members should do when they come to Scottsdale?

Visit Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home out in the desert. It has a special sense of place. Designed by him Taliesin is a working architectural firm today with students from all over the world living and working there. It is very unique and very evocative of Frank Lloyd Wright. I think it probably tells the greatest story of the Sonoran Desert and what the attraction of the valley is.

Next month, when I'm hosting a conference for 35 executive directors we're going to meet there, in Frank Lloyd Wright's living room.

Anything else you want to say to association executives?

Just that I travel all over the country - it's hard to think of a state I haven't been in - but, really, there's no place like Scottsdale. We live a very high quality of life here. It's clean. It's safe. It's beautiful. It's warm. And the people are friendly.