Media Release

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL - The Alachua County Visitors and Convention Bureau (VisitGainesville), the official tourism marketing organization for Alachua County, is offering their 2010 Spring Conference Grant Program to qualified meeting planners who conduct their meetings or conferences in Gainesville/Alachua County. Individual grants of up to $10,000 are available to corporate, association, or non-profit, public or privately funded planners.  Up to $75,000 in total 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 Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 10 a.m. at the Alachua County's Community Treasures Conference Room located in the County Administration Building located at 12 SE 1st Street, downtown Gainesville.

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

To qualify, meeting professionals must complete the grant application, which is available on-line at www.visitgainesville.com/grants.  Applicants must meet a number of criteria including confirmation of the number of hotel room nights their conference produced, or expect to produce, in Gainesville/Alachua County between July 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2013.

Applications must be submitted to the VisitGainesville office located at 30 East University Avenue in Downtown Gainesville during the official grant cycle, which opens Monday, March 1, 2010 and closes on Thursday, March 30 at 4 p.m.  The VisitGainesville offices are open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The County's Tourist Development Council (TDC) will review all qualified applications in April, with funding awards announced at the May TDC meeting.

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