We've spent a fair amount of time thinking of ways to get people excited about coming to Indianapolis—feel free to use any of this copy to promote your event or meeting.
A.
Unlike most downtowns, Indianapolis comes alive after dark.
Unlike most downtowns, Indianapolis comes alive after dark—especially in the blocks surrounding the Indiana Convention Center. Over 200 restaurants and clubs, live music and shows, and a four-story shopping mall are all right there, in the heart of everything, when you're ready to relax or have some fun. And when you're ready to go back to your room, you just stand up and walk there—it's a campus-like feel, with no tedious shuttling back and forth through endless traffic, like in a lot of convention cities.
B.
Bring your family. Even without a car, there's plenty for them to do downtown while you're in the meeting.
Bring your family. Even without a car, there's plenty for them to do downtown while you're in the meeting. If the weather's fair, they can walk a block or two to rent bikes, paddleboats, or Segway personal vehicles on the Central Canal, right in the middle of White River State Park—where they can also stroll in and around two wonderful museums and across a grassy bridge over the river to the Indianapolis Zoo (one of Trip Advisor's Top Ten in America). If it's raining, there's our 4-story urban mall with stores ranging from Carson Pirie Scott to American Eagle. And if they do have keys to the car, they might want to drive a few blocks north to our Children's Museum, which Child Magazine declared was “Best in the Nation.” And if they want to occupy an afternoon, Conner Prairie on Indy's northside makes Frommer's list of “Places To Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up.” You might even want to book an extra day to get it all in.
C.
A few “Only In Indianapolis”’s.
The Travel Channel declared the St. Elmo Steak House shrimp cocktail the “world's hottest meal.” Sports Illustrated's Peter King calls Indianapolis “the most walkable downtown in America.” USA Today called our award-winning art museum one of the worlds “Top 10 Best Places To Propose.” Indy's walkable/joggable/bike-able Cultural Trail was deemed “an astonishing and amazing vision” by the Project for Public Spaces in New York's Andy Wiley-Schwartz, who added, “There's really nothing like this in the world.” Anything Indianapolis does is done in an effort to raise the game from a national perspective—and one of their goals for many years has been to create a city especially designed to make conventions like ours productive and fun. Meetings and Conventions summed it up like this: “If there were a competition among cities for the title Overachiever of the Decade, the winner would be Indianapolis.”
D.
A City Of/By/For Sports Lovers
It's probably not a surprise that Indianapolis is a natural destination for people who love sports—any or all sports. Pro ball? Tour the homes of the Colts, the Pacers and Indiana Fever, or catch a game at Victory Field, which Sports Illustrated called “the Best Minor League Ballpark in America.” Cross the street to try your hand at various college sports—shooting hoops in a Hoosiers-style gym mock-up, whacking a tennis or golf ball—in the NCAA Hall of Champions. Or come ready to swim laps at the world-famous Indiana University Natatorium, site of more than a dozen world records. If you want to really let off steam, there's miles of scenic running (not surprising in the city that hosts the nation's largest half-marathon). And if you golf, we've got news: Indy is home to celebrated golf course designer Pete Dye—while you're here, you can play some of his best work, including a course built in the infield of the venue that hosts the worlds first- and second-largest one-day sporting events—the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Perhaps you've heard of it.
