How to add the outdoors

to your meeting in Rogers, Arkansas

Rogers, Arkansas, in the heart of Northwest Arkansas, puts a paved trail, a spring-fed lake, and a state park within a few minutes of your convention center and hotels with meeting space. No special vendor required. No extra afternoon carved out of the agenda. Here’s how, whether you’ve got twenty minutes or a full day to work with.

The Easiest Add-On: Build Time Into the Greenway

The Razorback Regional Greenway is a paved, 40-mile trail connecting the four main cities of Northwest Arkansas, and your attendees don’t have to go far to reach it. The Pinnacle Express connector runs right next to the Embassy Suites & Rogers Convention Center, Hotel Vin, and Hotel AVAIL, putting the trail within a short walk of those properties.

The simplest version costs nothing. Mention it in your pre-event marketing and tell attendees before they arrive: there’s a paved trail steps from their hotel.

If you’d rather build it into the program instead of leaving it to chance, there are two easy ways to go. Organize an early-morning 5K: a sunrise group run before the first general session, with no vendor or transportation needed, just a start line at the hotel and a route down the Greenway. Or keep it casual by posting a suggested route and distance at the registration desk and letting attendees come and go on their own schedule, on foot or on a bike.

Outdoors Without the Hike

Not every attendee wants a trailhead, and that’s fine. Pinnacle Hills Promenade is an open-air shopping and dining district, not an enclosed mall, so browsing its 100+ shops or grabbing lunch there still counts as time outside. TopGolf sits in the same corridor for a low-effort group activity that gets people out of the meeting room without asking anyone to break a sweat. And when it’s time for a meal, Rogers has no shortage of patio seating: see the full list of patio dining spots for options you can build straight into a group dinner.

Take It Regional: Make Rogers Your Basecamp for Northwest Arkansas

Rogers sits at the center of one of the largest outdoor trail networks in the country. The OZ Trails system connects more than 760 miles of paved, soft-surface, and multi-use trails across Northwest Arkansas, and Bella Vista just opened Arkansas’s first lift-served bike park a short drive away. Add in Beaver Lake’s 487 miles of shoreline for kayaking and fishing, Hobbs State Park’s 54 miles of trails, and War Eagle Cavern’s year-round 58-degree cave tour, and there’s an outdoor option for nearly any interest or fitness level within an easy drive of the convention center.

For planners, that’s the pitch: a productive meeting and a memorable outdoor experience, same trip, no trade-off. Use the regional network as a spouse or companion program option, a half-day extension for attendees staying an extra night, or simply a menu of options for free time between sessions.

Take the Program Outside, Not Just the Attendees

Rogers has real outdoor event infrastructure, so a reception or breakout doesn’t have to happen in a ballroom. The Sun Deck at Embassy Suites & Rogers Convention Center has a sun deck space right on-site, with no need to move the group anywhere. Hotel Vin, Hotel AVAIL, and Northgate Plaza Events Center all have rooftop patios that work well for an evening reception or a change-of-scenery breakout. And the WineYard at Hotel Vin offers roughly 5,000 square feet of dedicated outdoor event space for something bigger, like a full-group dinner or a closing celebration.

That means the outdoors doesn’t have to live only in attendees’ free time. It can be part of the program itself: opening remarks on a patio, a working lunch on the Sun Deck, or a closing reception at the WineYard.

Got 20 Minutes? An Hour? A Half Day? There’s an Outdoor Option for That

Not every outdoor add-on needs its own line item on the agenda. Some fit into the gaps you already have, and “outdoors” doesn’t have to mean a trail.

Got 20 minutes? Step onto the Sun Deck at Embassy Suites & Rogers Convention Center for a coffee break outside, walk a stretch of the Greenway via the Pinnacle Express connector, or browse a shop or two at Pinnacle Hills Promenade between sessions.

Got an hour? Hit some balls at TopGolf, claim a patio table for lunch, or take a short walk at Lake Atalanta.

Got a half day? Go kayaking or fishing at Beaver Lake, hike Hobbs State Park’s Pigeon Roost Trail, take the guided tour through War Eagle Cavern, or ride a longer stretch of the OZ Trails network.

Drop these into whatever windows your agenda actually has: an evening after the welcome reception, an early morning before the first session, or the half day most conferences build in before departure on the final day.

Or Let 37 North Handle the Logistics

Want to hand it all off? 37 North Expeditions can build and run the outdoor portion of your program for you. Whether you have a couple hours or more. They can tailor it to accommodate people of all abilities and experience level in the outdoors. As founder Danny Collins puts it: “37 North delivers expert-led, curated adventures for private and corporate groups across Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas… allowing guests to focus entirely on connecting with the outdoors.” They handle transportation and logistics for offerings like hiking, kayaking, and horseback riding, so this can slot into any of the windows above without adding planning work on your end.

Want to explore how to add the outdoors to your meeting? Contact the Destination Rogers Sales & Services team to learn more.