A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Meeting Planners Fall In Love With Bentonville's Unconventional Conventions

• Visit Bentonville • Season 9 • Episode 45

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Tired of conferences that keep everyone indoors and restless? We sat down with Wes Oliver, director of sales at Visit Bentonville, to unpack a NEW WAY:  The Unconventional Convention concept is a walkable, multi-venue model that trades hallways and windowless ballrooms for light, movement, and a sense of place. Bentonville stitches together high-quality spaces around downtown—think the Ledger, the Record, Compton Gardens, and new capacity at The Heartland Whole Health Institute and The Compton Hotel.

Beyond meeting rooms, Bentonville’s strengths show up in curated experiences: guided rides on nearby trails, docent-led tours at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and family-friendly stops at the Amazeum. The result is a destination conference model that boosts attendee satisfaction, supports sustainability with car-light movement, and turns a free afternoon into a meaningful part of the program. 

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A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.

You can listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Casts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Podcast Addict.

Beth Bobbitt:

This is a new American town, and I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt. Today I get the pleasure of speaking with Wes Oliver, sales director at Visit Bentonville. We're going to jump into the experiential concept, unconventional convention. Wes, your legend. Welcome to the podcast.

Wes Oliver:

Thank you, Beth.

Beth Bobbitt:

So glad you're here. So before we start talking about the concept, I'd love to hear a little bit about your background, your role at Visit Bentonville, and how you came to Bentonville.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, so my role at Visit Bentonville is director of sales. So I lead the team that deals with all sorts of group events: sports tournaments, cycling races, meetings, conferences, anything that brings a large group of people together in Bentonville. That's that's what we work with. And we set up hotel room blocks, we'll secure venues for them, tournament space, we can assist with logistics. I will set up tents and haul sandbags too. It's just kind of all over the board. Yeah. How I got into this line of work is uh well, I I actually kind of always worked in uh for organizations like Visit Bentonville. I started working part-time for the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Charleston, South Carolina when I was in college and just kept going. So I've always been doing this sort of stuff.

Beth Bobbitt:

Amazing. And did you come to Bentonville for this job or had you been here before?

Wes Oliver:

No, so my family and I, we moved to Northwest Arkansas about a little more than five years ago, five and a half. Um, and we moved for my wife's work. She was teaching at the University of Arkansas at the time. Uh, and so I've been with Visit Bentonville for about a year and a half. Uh before that, I was with the Springdale Chamber of Commerce for three years. Before that, I spent about two years as a stay-at-home dad. We actually moved here, we moved into our apartment at Fayetteville March 1st of 2020, uh, right when COVID hit. So that was that was an interesting time to be looking for a job. Uh eventually I just gave up on it and you know did the stay-at home dad thing and had a lot of fun.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, and I bet you you got a chance to explore, and now you're kind of on the other side of that, promoting all of the amenities that you've been experiencing. So that's that's great.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah. Yeah. That was actually my first real interaction with the trail system, especially, because we spent a lot of time just riding bikes around Northwest Arkansas on the trails.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. So what is the model of unconventional convention? What is it?

Wes Oliver:

So unconventional convention is kind of just this umbrella term that we use to describe Bentonville's unique situation from a meeting standpoint, which is that unlike a lot of places where, unlike a lot of destinations where people go for conferences, we don't have a big hotel and convention center where everything just happens under the same roof. What we have are a lot of really high-quality small and medium-sized meeting spaces and hotels that are kind of spread out, but a lot of them are clustered together. And so an unconventional convention is really just any combination of those hotels and venues, depending on what the group's needs are. So some will use this subset of properties, some will use that. So it's really more of a reference to how it works, which is you know having people flowing between buildings in close proximity rather than specifying exactly which properties they're using.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right. So it it kind of came about as creative problem solving, but it's working in your favor. It's actually ideal for them to experience multiple venues and yeah, exactly.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, it came about because you know, we we've got to do a little extra communication and legwork on the planning, and especially when we're selling the idea, because all the planners are familiar with, you know, a box hotel where you know, here are your rooms and then you go down this hallway, and then there's all the meeting space, and it's just right there. Whereas for us, we have to talk to them, okay, well, you know, yes, they're different, they're different buildings, but they're across the street. It's really easy to move between them, and you know, it also ends up being kind of fun.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. And you talked a little bit about this, but one reason that connectivity is so great is because of the trail systems and because the downtown is now so walkable. And um, what other reasons is Bittenville perfect for this model?

Wes Oliver:

Well, you know, there's a lot of attractions that are right downtown. So you know a lot of a lot of these conferences, they'll have a free afternoon where the attendees can get out and do things. And, you know, if they're staying at the downtown properties and meeting at some of the downtown venues, they can walk diagonally across the street and there's the Walmart Museum. They can fall, they can follow the path through the square and then down through the forest to Crystal Bridges and visit this world-class art museum. They can hop on a bike and ride over to Color or get on the greenway and go explore. So there's all these things that they can do from the downtown area without needing to get into a car. So it's it's it's very engaging from an experiential standpoint.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. This is Alison Nation with Visit Bentonville, and I've got your trip planning secret weapon. Our seasonal guides and blog are packed with insider tips on what's happening right now in Bentonville. From fall festival guides to spring adventure itineraries and everything in between. Whether you're planning a weekend getaway or a longer stay, we'll show you the best experiences for every season. Head to visitbentonville.com and check out our blog. Your perfect Bentonville Adventure starts with the right information and we've got you covered. I guess who is the ideal client for this?

Beth Bobbitt:

Can you talk a little bit about who you've hosted in the past, who you're reaching out to?

Wes Oliver:

Uh a few good examples of the format. Uh the International Sports Vision Association Conference, which was um optometrists who work with sports teams on vision issues. Uh they they utilized a number of different properties. The Arkansas Governor's Conference on Tourism back in February.

Beth Bobbitt:

That was a big one.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, that was that was that that one kind of it strained the capacity of the model. Uh, you know, four to five hundred is that kind of pushes what we can fit in any one of those venues. And there are all kinds of ways that we can creatively problem solve for larger sizes. That's kind of the point at which it goes from all right, we can easily do this to, oh, we need to figure out a plan.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, staggering groups or whatever that might be.

Wes Oliver:

But our our sweet spot for this Unconventional Convention model is right around 300 people. So anything 150, 200, 300, even up to 400, it all fits pretty neatly into the spaces that we have to work with and with the properties that are nearby that can house them.

Beth Bobbitt:

And you've talked about a few of the spaces, but you know, there's new ones popping up every day. So what are the sort of new venues that you're looking at or you're utilizing?

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, new venues. Well, so The Compton Hotel, it's opening downtown, they're gonna have some ballroom space on the second floor that I mean, that'll certainly get used. Some of our stalwarts, you know, ones that get used a lot uh are the ledger and the record, because those are two of the biggest spaces downtown. Another, not exactly new, but newly open, uh reopened, is the Compton Gardens building that's you know right along that trail, Crystal Bridges.

Beth Bobbitt:

That's a space.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, that's i especially for like an opening night reception or something, it's it's kind of perfect for that use. And so that's nice to be able to add that into the inventory as well.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. So what have you heard from attendees or from you know these groups that have come through? Do they give you feedback or anecdotes?

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, yeah, they I mean love it. I it's it's a little more challenging up front to plan it, but then once they live it, I don't think I've heard any bad feedback. They all love it, you know, because it's fun. You you're not trapped in this you know windowless room all day.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right.

Wes Oliver:

You get out and you walk between the buildings, and even when you're in the building, you know, our our buildings are you know, like the ledger, it's got floor to ceiling windows, there's tons of natural light. Um uh uh one of my favorite examples to cite is uh Delaney with Arkansas Tourism. Uh, when we were talking to her for the about the governor's conference, uh, whenever we first started those conversations, the team at Arkansas Tourism, they were, you know, uh to be honest, they were a little bit skeptical about the idea, uh, you know, because it's you know, it's uh it's logistically more challenging. Like I talked about, it's not, you know, simple plug and play where all the meeting rooms are right next to each other. You've got to move people between venues for the meals and the general session, and then you go down to these different floors for all the breakout sessions. And you know, it's if you've never done a different kind of meeting before from a planning perspective, it's a little bit scary. Uh, but on the last night of the governor's conference, uh, up on stage, you know, Delaney, you know, she said in front of the crowd that, you know, she was a little bit skeptical when it all started, but you know, now that she's experienced it, she was blown away by it. So that was really gratifying to hear that not only are the are the attendees having this really cool experience, but even the planners who are are maybe kind of leery of it at first, then they get to experience it and they say, wow, this was really cool.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right, right. Yeah, I would I would think that that would add a lot to it. I mean, we've all been in these conferences where they just seem to like go on and on, and then you know, you get up and go to the restroom and get a snack and come right back in the same seat, and it can affect your experience. And so to be able to like get some fresh air and exercise and see, you know, and experience the town that you're in.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, I mean, what a novel concept seeing the sun at two in the afternoon.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. I wonder how catching this will be if other cities will start to notice and and maybe adopt the model.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, I mean, I think it kind of just depends on the dynamics of a city. You know, Bentonville's kind of fortunate in that we've got these developers who really you know are interested in experimenting with different kinds of constructions, with buildings that can suit different purposes.

Speaker:

Right.

Wes Oliver:

Uh, you know, it's it's easy from a developer standpoint. It's easy and it's cheaper to just throw up a big box hotel and convention center and call it done. You know, windows cost money.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. And I've also heard about the new Heartland Whole Health Institute. Can you talk a little bit more about that space?

Wes Oliver:

Yeah. So that's a beautiful new space. It opened, I think it opened to the public back in May. Uh, and their biggest space there is the ballroom. And it can divide into three sections with air walls. Uh, I mean it's just it's gorgeous inside. You know, you look up at the roof and it's uh these wooden beams that are kind of undulating. It's supposed to be shaped like the underneath of a mushroom. They said that's what the architect designed it to be reminiscent of. Uh and you know, it's just incredible. You can fit, I mean, over 500 people in there for reception event. Uh they can set it up all different ways, of course. And the ballroom, it opens up onto this nice green lawn outside, and then there's an overlook uh into the woods. And then, you know, you step out into the hallway, and there's just art installations all up and down the hallway and into the lobby. They've got a few little conference rooms, a couple of green rooms. So it's it's also a really good space for you know, if you're looking for a uh a keynote with a high-caliber speaker or you know, performer of some style uh some type, they've got really nice green room spaces for them to wait in.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, as soon as you walk in, it's immediately your shoulders drop. The way that it's designed, the openness, the art, like you said, just gorgeous.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, and that that lobby and hall space with the art that's open to the public. Right. Uh so you can just walk in there and look at it, and it's it's worth a visit. And you know, you step in and you look down the hall, and there's this giant uh TV, I guess, uh on the wall. And it's it's a permanent art installation. It you know, it shows you know bubbles and plants, and it's just constantly moving. And it's it's kind of hypnotizing to look at. And we've we've already had a few planners who have seen the space and asked, like, oh, can we use that TV wall to put sponsor logos up? And you know, the answer is is no, because the Heartland Hole Health Ins Institute, the they contracted with an artist where that that piece is up on that wall on that screen through I think it's through the end of 27. It's for a few years anyway.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah.

Wes Oliver:

Um, and and I was actually really excited when I heard that was the answer because it you know it it'd be such a shame to take that off the screen instead of putting up sponsor logos. But you know, because it really creates the ambiance of the space.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, and there's a coffee shop. Sometimes I just go in there and work and yeah, it's worth checking out for sure.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wes, anything else you want to touch on related to unconventional convention?

Wes Oliver:

I don't know that it's necessarily related to Unconventional Conventions specifically, because you know, we'll do it even if a group's small enough to just be under one route. But something that we do for a lot of groups and for those examples of the Unconventional Convention, we definitely saw pickup on it is that we'll arrange excursion tours around town. So we can create guided experiences for the attendees. You know, if that conference does have a free afternoon, you know, we can get guides to lead them on bike rides. We can set up a guided tour through Crystal Bridges, through the collection to you know talk about specific artworks. Uh so you it it's really kind of going the extra mile to give them a uniquely Bentonville experience.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right.

Wes Oliver:

Not just cutting them loose for three hours and they figure things out on their own. Yeah, we can help them plan that time.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right. Yeah. And then they come back because they love it as they always do.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah.

Beth Bobbitt:

So wrapping up, I'd love to hear about some of your favorite hot spots in Bentonville, what you do with your family when you have some free time, bonus points if you have secret spots that you know we may not know about.

Wes Oliver:

Uh, you know, secret spots, one of the I don't know that it's I don't know that's exactly it's kind of an open secret, I would say. Uh I've taken my daughter a couple times, but I think it's kind of funny and also just so Bentonville that, you know, the parking garage that's right next to the Amazeum and Crystal Bridges, the garage itself has a very different design. So, you know, it's it's a lot more aesthetically pleasing than what you would expect of a garage. But then down the bottom level, there's some uh commercial space where there's a little coffee shop, and then there's right outside of that, there's a splash pad that's on this like natural stone terrace and it connects to the trails that go down through the woods to Crystal Bridges. And you know, it's uh there's a few times when I've taken my daughter and I'll just sit there in the Adirondack chairs while she splashes in the water, and there's this beautiful view of the forest. And but then you also have this kind of surreal moment where you realize I'm sitting on the bottom level of a parking garage. I'm doing it. You're sort of tricked. I mean, there's art all around you, right? Yeah, there's art installations there. Yeah. Um, so that's one of those only in Bentonville kind of places. Um I've got a young kid, so I've also spent a lot of time at the Amazeum here. Um that's a classic. Uh I would also draw attention to the Native American Museum. I think that there are a lot of people who come to Bent Bentonville and that doesn't, you know, register on their radar. You know, it's not in the downtown, it's a little bit out, or you know, maybe they just don't think to look for it.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right.

Wes Oliver:

Uh but it's one of those neat little places that's definitely well worth a visit.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. I mean, uh for the arrowhead hunting alone, that's such a fun kid activity that they have.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, and it's so close to Coler that it'd be really easy to tie it into you know, like a full afternoon. You can stop at the museum for an hour and check it out and then kind of bop right across the street to park at you know, Coler and then, you know, walk or ride around on the trails there.

Beth Bobbitt:

Love it. Yes. Well, now we have all these great ideas. It's a beautiful day. Let's get out and do something.

Wes Oliver:

Yeah, absolutely.

Beth Bobbitt:

Thanks for coming in today, Wes. Appreciate your time.

Wes Oliver:

Thanks for having me, Beth. This was fun.

Beth Bobbitt:

Don't forget, Visit Bentonville is here to help navigate things to do, where to eat and stay, and what's going on in Our New American Town. Check out the show notes, follow us on social, sign up for our newsletter, and get on our website at visitbentonnville.com. Thanks for listening.