News Hospitality Local facilities offer up natural milieu
Local facilities offer up natural milieu
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Meeting guests at the Kalamazoo Nature Center have reported the facility’s natural settings serve as a stress reliever, according to PHOTO COURTESY OF |
By Lisa Mackinder | M&C
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Across the region, opportunities abound for giving business meetings and event attendees a more “natural” experience. Many local facilities rely on their environmental settings to attract guests away from the hustle and bustle of the urban centers.
In Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo Nature Center offers the business audience a variety of spaces for infusing the great outdoors into any meeting agenda. The center’s Member’s Room seats up to 25 people and has a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows that provides a view of Cooper’s Glen and wildlife feeding stations.
“The only interruption is wild turkeys coming up,” said Rose Norwood, assistant director of development at the Kalamazoo Nature Center.
The Glen Vista Gallery not only offers a serene view of the beech-maple forest of Cooper’s Glen, but also features works of art by local artists. Seating 150 individuals theater style, 85 sit-down reception style and 40 classroom style, the room has doors opening onto the 3,000 square-foot Vista Deck, which Norwood said puts guests into the treetops and is a great room for luncheons. She said many businesses eat on the deck and then go for a walk in the woods.
Cooper’s Glen Auditorium, often used as a general-purpose room, has a view overlooking the Cooper’s Glen beech-maple forest and full media capabilities, including a drop-down screen and projector mounted into the ceiling. It holds approximately 155 people theater style, 85 sit down reception style and 50 people classroom style. Like the Glen Vista Gallery, the auditorium opens onto the Vista Deck.
Norwood said there are advantages to holding meetings and events in a natural setting. She believes in that atmosphere, the programs become more of a retreat for individuals to de-stress and re-energize.
“It is really helpful to relieve stress if you have a view or vista and look out at the woods,” she told M&C.
And for corporations wanting more than just a view, the Kalamazoo Nature Center offers the Amphitheater and Hummingbird-Butterfly Garden. Nestled into a green hillside, the Amphitheater features a stage and benches. It seats up to 250 guests theater style. The Hummingbird-Butterfly Garden is filled with plantings and flowers that feed and shelter its namesakes. It holds up to 250 guests theater style. Norwood said the center also has a timber-framed barn, which is often used for company picnics. It holds 343 individuals theater style and 160 sit-down reception style.
Norwood said businesses can combine their meetings with service projects, engaging in spreading mulch and gravel or pulling weeds. Other companies use the nature center’s wide spectrum of educational programs, self guided walks or scavenger hunts.
“Often people will use these as team-building experiences,” she said.
Between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners offers a unique outdoor experience with the KBS Conference Center, W.K. Kellogg Manor House, W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and KBS Pasture Dairy Center.
Located on 32-acres on Gull Lake, the KBS Conference Center has an auditorium that seats up to 120 people classroom style, the McCrary Dining Room — where the chef presents breakfast, lunch and dinner — that allows for 130 people, and a deck area overlooking Gull Lake holds 50 people.
The KBS Conference Center additionally features 11 flexible meeting rooms. Sitting on the high point of the lake is the W.K. Kellogg Manor House, which Annette Crum, assistant to the conference manager for the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, said serves as a good place for teas and small meetings — especially with its inviting terrace.
“You can go down steps (of the terrace) from the Manor House to the Pagoda Garden Area,” she told M&C.
With a one-mile walk down the road, conference attendees have an opportunity to see hundreds of waterfowl and birds of prey at the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary. The sanctuary provides 180-acres of diverse wildlife habitats on 40-acre Wintergreen Lake with both guided and self-guided tours available.
Attendees wanting to walk a bit further can tour the KBS Pasture Dairy Center, where the cows get milked with robotic state-of-the-art milking machines.
Attendees also have many recreational activities at their fingertips. They have a chance to swim and fish on Gull Lake, play volleyball, soccer, football, basketball and horseshoes or walk along the trails.
The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station makes an excellent location for retreats. It offers many lodging choices, such as apartments in the Conference Center, cabins and the recently renovated Caretaker’s Cottage, which features hardwood floors. All of the meeting and lodging rooms have wireless Internet service.
At the Howard Christensen Nature Center in Kent City, businesses may rent space in the Red Pine Interpretive Center and Field Station. Lecture style seating holds up to 380 people and classroom or banquet style seating holds up to 180 people. Guests have access to a kitchenette, fireplace and sound system, but not wireless Internet connection. HCNC director Kathy Reed likened it to feeling as if one were in the Upper Peninsula with a rustic experience.
Sitting on about 130 acres and surrounded by 6,000-acres of state game land, HCNC has much in the way of outdoor activity — like seven miles of hiking trails and snowshoeing.
“It’s a great place for doing team building,” said Reed.
Some businesses, such as Gordon Foods and Coca Cola, have come out for service projects like cleaning up trails or spreading wood chips. HCNC also offers numerous programs like bird watching and timber harvesting.
In Benton Harbor, the 1,000-acre Sarett Nature Center has added the Jordan Tatter Great Room, which features hardwood floors, a fieldstone fireplace, a bay window and vaulted ceilings. The room holds approximately 130 individuals. It also has the Dr. William Emery Conference Room that holds up to 12 persons conference style, the Edna Norris Classroom that holds up to 25 persons conference style, and the Lower Level Learning Center that holds about 70 persons theater style.
“We have all the best new equipment,” said Kathy Nelson, secretary at Sarett Nature Center.
Nelson said guests can hike over five miles of trails, take in several ponds, view wildlife, attend educational programs and participate in cross country skiing and snow shoeing.
“We just built a very beautiful trail,” said Nelson. “A boardwalk goes to a tower that overlooks the Paw Paw River Valley.”
