Orange County Mayor Welcomes Your Group

Dear Industry Professionals:

Greetings from Orlando! Please allow me a few moments to express my appreciation to our clients, customers and colleagues who have continued to see the benefit of the positive meeting environment Orlando provides your meeting attendees. Working with you, the Orlando hospitality community and local leaders, the destination has evolved to be a leader in the meetings industry.

As you have witnessed, Orlando has evolved, and will continue to grow to accommodate the needs of your diverse and changing business meetings. For many years, our focus has been to transition from being not only an exciting vacation destination, to one in which business meetings can excel and enjoy their own unique environment. We fully understand the needs of business travelers, including outstanding service, accessible and affordable air lifts, flexible state-of-the-art meeting facilities, business-minded hotels, dining and world-class attraction venues, just to name a few. We have made sure, as we have grown, that your event needs can be fully met in Orlando.

Orlando is a thriving business center focused on high technology with a $13.5 billion and growing industry, is home to EA Sports, and has the fifth-largest university in the country, with more than $120 million in research grants. We are pleased with our growth, as more and more organizations decide to establish Orlando as their home base. A perfect example is the development of Orlando's medical city, one of only two being built in the world. We will soon be celebrating the completion of this community that includes Burnham Institute, Nemours, and UCF Medical School & Research Center, as well as a new veterans' hospital. So, on many fronts, Orlando is continuing to mature.

An integral part of shaping our community for the $30 billion hospitality and tourism industry has been the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. I believe this organization does a wonderful job accomplishing these goals, primarily through its desire to act as a true partner to meeting professionals and the leaders of this community. The Orlando/Orange County CVB is focused on ensuring that all meetings, conventions and tradeshows that select Orlando enjoy a successful event that provides a return on investment for the company or association and the attendees. The partnership between Orange County and the Orlando/Orange County CVB these past 25 years has been exceptionally strong, and we will continue to fully support its efforts.

Again, thank you for your attention, your support and the role which you have played in our past and current successes, as well as in our future.

Sincerely,

Richard T. Crotty
Mayor, Orange County, FL