A Place Where Meeting Planners Can Unwind

For Ginny Fountain, the Pinehurst, Southern Pines and Aberdeen area is about as close to a no-brainer as she can get. Since becoming Manager of Corporate and Event Planning for the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives, she's held at least one corporate event here every year. Why wouldn't she? The treatment she gets from her hosts allows her to do something that's unheard of in her line of work — relax.

"The minute you arrive, your blood pressure and stress level immediately decrease," she says. "It's a beautiful area with friendly people, and the customer service we receive from the area resorts and CVB is excellent." Fountain has held regional meetings, annual conferences and workshops in the Home of American Golf, with attendance ranging from 30 to 100 people. Sometimes these events have included golf, sometimes they haven't. One of Fountain's most pleasant surprises came when she realized golf wasn't the only thing she could use to make her events unique.

For instance, in addition to choosing from luxury resorts and hotels, she could put on her event in the Fair Barn, an historic landmark originally built a century ago for the Sandhills Fair. The 6000-sq.-ft. facility features classic American decor and a dining capacity of 500.

She was delighted at the variety of activities the area provided. Tandem skydiving, horseback riding, and spa escapes are just a few of many interesting diversions she could use to punctuate her event.

In a job that demands so much evaluation and deliberation, Fountain says site selection is the easiest decision she makes. The Pinehurst, Southern Pines and Aberdeen area gives her consistently rave results by helping her make each event unique and special.