Destination South Meetings + Experiences

Meeting management & production

Meetings since 1995
50 to 40,000 attendees
Blackbaud sales kickoff

Cynthia Alford

Founder, President & Owner

Blackbaud Sales Kickoff general session with stage lighting and a seated audience — Photo: Destination South

What is Destination South?

Destination South Meetings + Experiences (DSME) is a meeting management and production company founded by Cynthia Alford in 1995. It is headquartered in Atlanta, and its ADMEI listing gives a Charleston-area office in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Its site says it has delivered meetings for corporations, associations and non-profits "from 50 to 40,000 attendees across the Southeast and beyond," and that it now focuses entirely on meetings. Services cover meeting strategy, site selection and hotel sourcing, budget development and reconciliation, agenda design, hybrid meetings, food and beverage, room setup and BEO review, registration, production, speaker care and on-site program management, with a dedicated team that can include a technical director, creative director, show caller and stage manager. A Blackbaud sales-enablement manager says on its site that DSME plans the company's annual sales kickoff each year, including budget, contracts, keynote speakers and onsite production; Hansgrohe and Stibo Systems also give testimonials. Alford received the ADMEI Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, and the company won a 2020 ADMEI award for a Stibo program in Copenhagen.

Founded: 1995
Offices: Atlanta HQ; Mount Pleasant (Charleston)
Program size: 50 to 40,000 attendees
Accreditation: ADMEI Accredited DMC