Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida: generating record-breaking meeting attendance. (Hospitality).

Veteran planners know it's important to have an edge, an extra element of appeal that goes in at the initial planning stage and guarantees your event or meeting will be a success. Planners who have been choosing Walt Disney World over the years have learned to count on that edge. They call it the Disney attendance bounce, a marked surge in participation when potential attendees learn the event will be held at Disney. "I've noticed it both with my corporate clients and particularly with my association clients for quite some time," said Tim Brown, a partner in Meeting Sites Resources of Newport Beach, California, who frequently uses the Walt Disney World Resort as a meetings destination. "I think it has to do with several factors, many of which revolve around an increased propensity of attendees who want to include families in their travel plans whenever possible, and the fact that Disney offers a wide range of experiences that appeal to both adults and children. I think we are in an era now in which what is comfortable and familiar becomes important to us, and this is a good example of that phenomenon in action."

Disney delivers this unique brand of magic--an experience that becomes highly personal for every individual who visits--in a secure and well-organized environment where all the variables are controlled, every detail is important, and nothing is left to chance. It's an approach to business that has been hailed the world over, and it has lessons for every association attendee. Through the Disney Institute, your attendees can go behind the scenes to discover these lessons and the business behind the magic. Disney Institute programs showcase best practices related to topics such as people management, service, operational excellence, leadership, and more, It's compelling content that can add an entirely new professional development experience to your meeting.

Planners who use Disney gain an extra measure of confidence from the Disney team's policy that no event is too big and no detail is too small. "Sometimes that attention to the small details becomes critical to the success of your event," Brown says. "When you are dealing with someone who you can trust to remember those small details, it certainly increases your comfort level." While at some venues the possibilities may be limited only by your imagination, at Disney your event doesn't even face that limitation. The professional, creative Disney team can do the dreaming for you, managing every aspect of your event from rooms and function space to food and beverage, floral, and entertainment. With Disney, you can also rest assured that your event will be flawlessly produced on time and on budget. Best of all, a Disney meeting might just be the easiest you'll ever produce. All it takes is a call to your Disney convention services manager, your single contact who orchestrates all the details.

Event planners who have come to know and rely on the services of Disney Event Production think of it as a Disney-owned, full-service destination management company. Disney Event Productions does everything a planner would expect--and more. "To me the ultimate compliment you can pay Disney Event Productions is that that when they tell you not to worry about something, you really can do just that," says Scott A. Hansen, vice president of Harland Financial Solutions, a Lake Mary, Florida-based financial industry software company. Hansen, who has held his company's most important annual meeting at Disney for 10 consecutive years, says Disney combines incredible creativity with the willingness to go the extra mile for every event. "It's obviously part of the fabric of the Disney corporate culture," he says. "Going the extra mile for you is not the exception; it's simply the norm."

The 47-square-mile Walt Disney World Resort also includes the other key element for a successful association meeting: convention resorts that were designed from the ground up to accommodate meetings. Disney's Coronado Springs Resort is the largest and most affordable resort, It offers 1,967 guest rooms and 95,000 square feet of meeting space. It's also home to the largest hotel ballroom in the Southeast. Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, with 1,197 rooms and 73,000 square feet of meeting space, offer a stately, themed backdrop. In all, meeting planners can chose from six dedicated Disney meeting resorts.

All these elements combine to offer every association planner an opportunity to make his or her meeting another record-breaker.