HIDDEN GEM: Winston-Salem

What makes Winston-Salem a great place for faith-based meetings?

Our unique blend of old and new gives our visitors the best of both worlds. Winston-Salem was founded by the Moravians in 1766, acknowledged as the first Protestants (pre-dating the Lutherans by 100 years). Our family-friendly destination makes us the perfect location for faith-based meetings. Many of our meeting spaces are in our vibrant downtown area, which Forbes named one of America’s Top 10 downtowns. That’s where you’ll find a perfect blend of hotels, restaurants, shops, and activities — all in a compact, walkable area. So once you arrive, you can park until you are ready to head home.

Another big draw to Winston-Salem is our convenient location in the heart of North Carolina. We’re less than 30 minutes from an international airport (PTIA) and have easy access to several major interstates. We’re also a relatively short drive from several major cities —around an hour from Charlotte, five hours from Atlanta, and six from Washington, DC.

What are some of Winston-Salem's unique and major meeting spaces?

Our Benton Convention Center in the heart of downtown offers more than 150,000 square feet of meeting space and connects to our Marriott Hotel and the Embassy Suites hotel for a combined total of 175,000 square feet of meeting space. In addition, within walking distance of the Convention Center are several additional full-service and limited-service hotels that can be utilized as overflow hotels when needed. One of those hotels is our Kimpton Cardinal Hotel, which is stationed in the historic Reynolds Building — a 1929 art deco skyscraper that served as the prototype for the Empire State Building.

The Millennium Center sits a block from the Convention Center, a grand historical federal building repurposed as an offsite meeting/event location suitable for up to 500 guests. Downtown is also home to the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, once the site of RJR’s manufacturing operations. You’ll now find several meeting facilities and restaurant options inside renovated warehouses and factories.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Graylyn Estate and Conference Center. Situated on 85 acres a few miles north of downtown, Graylyn is the former estate of Bowman Gray (former president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.), who built the Norman Revival-style Manor House in the late 1920s. Today, Graylyn is one of the country’s most enchanting and historic hotels, doubling as a sophisticated and highly sought-after executive conference center with 85 guest rooms and 25,000 square feet of unique event space. Meeting planners can take advantage of all their onsite amenities: onsite dining, lawn games, hiking paths, bicycle rentals, tennis, and much more.

What are some new or upcoming enhancements to Winston-Salem that would interest event planners?

We’ve invested more than $2 billion downtown over the past few years, particularly in the Innovation Quarter area, and several big projects are on the horizon. For example, we’re really excited about a new $40 million children’s museum, Kaleideum, opening in the heart of downtown in February 2024. The museum will have nine interactive exhibits spread across five floors, a state-of-the-art planetarium, and a 300-person event space. It will also feature a multi-level rooftop play area, “Rooftop Adventures,” the first exhibit of its kind in the Carolinas.

Upgrades are constantly being made at Truist Stadium, our beautiful downtown ballpark, named the best stadium in America a few years ago by Baseballparks.com. It’s home of the Winston-Salem Dash, a minor league team in the Chicago White Sox system. In addition to being a great place to watch a baseball game, the stadium is also a fantastic location for memorable, turnkey events when looking for an offsite activity.

Beyond that, our city continues to add restaurants, outdoor space, attractions, and hotels to enhance the experience for our visitors.