Media Release

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL - VisitGainesville, the official tourism marketing organization for Alachua County, is offering their 2010 Fall Conference Grant Program to qualified meeting planners who conduct their meetings or conferences in Gainesville/Alachua County.  Individual grants cap at $10,000 and are available to corporate, association, non-profit, and public or privately-funded planners.  Up to $75,000 in grant funding is available during the spring cycle.

To assist meeting and conference planners interested in applying, VisitGainesville is conducting a Spring Conference Grant Workshop on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 10 a.m. at the Alachua County's Community Treasures Conference Room located in the Downtown Administration Building at 12 SE 1st Street, Gainesville.

"The workshop is the perfect forum to learn details about the grant program and to make the application process easier and more accurate.  Though not required to attend, it can be very helpful for a meeting planner to understand the entire grant process," said Nancy Fischer, CMP, VisitGainesville's Director of Sales. 

To qualify meeting professionals must complete the grant application which is available on-line at:  www.visitgainesville.com/grants  and satisfy a number of criteria including estimating  the number of hotel room nights their conference will produce in Gainesville/Alachua County between January 1, 2011 and December 30, 2013. 

Applications must be submitted during the official grant cycle, which opens Wednesday, September 1, 2010.  The deadline is Thursday, September 30 no later than 4 p.m.  The application must be delivered to the VisitGainesville office located at 30 East University Avenue in Downtown Gainesville.  The VisitGainesville offices are open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  All qualified applications will be reviewed by the County's Tourist Development Council (TDC) in October of 2010, with funding awards announced at the November 2010 TDC meeting.

For additional information, planners may contact Nancy Fischer or John Pricher (e-mail:  nfischer@visitgainesville.com jop@visitgainesville.com) at the Gainesville VCB at 352-374-5260 or toll-free at 866-778-5002.