Q2 Sales Kickoff (SKO) destinations from New York

Mount Pleasant, SC

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.

Charleston, SC

Fox Audio Visual is a Charleston event production company that brands itself around Professional Audio Visual & Event Production Services, handling AV-heavy events "from concept to strike" with technical labor, equipment and production management. For corporate clients it describes itself as a regional partner for turnkey conference AV, LED wall rentals and hybrid streaming across the Southeast, covering general sessions, breakouts, annual summits, product launches, sales kickoffs, board meetings and trade shows with LED wall backdrops, multi-camera I-Mag, line array audio and live streaming. It also supplies technical crews, AV rentals and mobile LED screen trailers, and works on galas. Founded by Steve Brown, who started with microphone and speaker rentals at Fox Music House in Charleston, it now has offices in Charleston and St. Simons Island, Georgia, and says it has more than 12 full-time technicians and over 25 contractors.

Charleston, SC

KLH Group is a Charleston destination management company and corporate event strategy firm led by owner and principal Hope Caldwell. It describes its focus as "high-end corporate experiences, executive retreats, incentive travel programs, leadership summits, and social impact activations," and its corporate services include national sales meetings, corporate conferences, board retreats, company offsites, VIP client experiences and brand activations. As a DMC it provides "the full spectrum of destination management services for the greater Charleston, SC area," from group transfers and excursions to 24/7 support, and it also takes events on the road. Its social impact work builds hands-on service projects into corporate events; its signature KLH Clubhouse Build has teams build clubhouses for children facing serious illness, and its site cites projects with Newell Brands' leadership summit and at IMEX America. Caldwell, who spent over a decade in event design and destination management at a five-star property, has built a team of women, and she founded the nonprofit Doors to Dream.

Savannah, Georgia

Kristin Detwiler, CMP, DMCP, leads Savannah Destination Management, which has served clients since 2009, and has more than 25 years in the industry, including roles at SmithBucklin and Starwood. Her locally owned company designs corporate meetings and events in Savannah, with local tours, team building, gala and reception venues, theme parties, décor, entertainment, and transportation with meet-and-greet. She has planned events for between 2 and 18,000 attendees. The company says it is the only DMC in the area holding ADMEI's Certificate in Emergency Preparedness.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Group Services, Inc. has provided destination management in Puerto Rico for conventions, meetings and incentive groups since 1992. It designs special events at historic venues and resorts, runs team building and land and marine tours, and handles transportation. GSI says it is the only DMC in Puerto Rico with operating offices inside San Juan's international airport, so groups are met on arrival.

Nashville, TN

Music City Events is a corporate event planning and destination management company with offices in Nashville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, and it says its team is "led by Certified Meeting Professionals." It plans meetings and conferences, sales kickoffs, incentive travel, executive and leadership retreats, brand activations, celebrations and awards, and team-building programs, and handles transportation and logistics and event production and design. Its site lists featured destinations in Nashville, Charlotte, Greenville–Spartanburg, Charleston, Atlanta, Savannah, Orlando and New Orleans, with reach across Alabama and Mississippi and support for programs nationwide. Case studies on its site describe a three-day Nashville leadership summit for 475 attendees with more than 40 transportation movements, an Atlanta executive retreat for 155 senior executives and an Orlando incentive weekend for 180 top performers. It operates as the destination management division of A Brand Nu Day, led by Aundrea Fogg.

Nashville, TN

OVATION is a corporate event production agency headquartered in Nashville, with a presence in Boston, and its site says it has been producing events for more than 30 years. It keeps strategy, creative, technical production and talent sourcing under one roof, from scenic design, motion graphics and presentation design to AV, live streaming, show calling and technical direction. It works on user conferences, sales kickoffs, medical, educational and association events, expos and product launches, in person, hybrid or virtual, and its FAQ describes events from 50-person sales kickoffs to 5,000-person user conferences. Case studies on its site include general session and expo production for PTC's LiveWorx in Boston, Cracker Barrel's FY24 Managers Conference for more than 1,800 managers and suppliers, Outreach's Unleash 2023, its first in-person user conference after the pandemic, and Brightcove's global sales kickoff. It names Salesforce, PTC, Outreach and YPO among its clients, and says its work has earned six Telly Awards.

Nashville, TN

Simply Golden Events is a Nashville event planning company co-founded by Keiana Hastings and Hailey Keyees, who both work as lead event producers. The team plans weddings, corporate events and social celebrations across Middle Tennessee, and its site says the team has a combined 18-plus years of experience. For companies it offers two packages: event coordination, which covers a kickoff meeting, venue walkthrough, vendor contact, contract review, the timeline and layout, and a team on site for up to 12 hours, and full event planning, which adds budget management, rental bookings and vendor coordination. Its corporate page names conferences, sales kickoffs and company retreats among the events it handles. In January 2023 the team served as event coordinator for the first Elevate Summit, hosted by NAPCP at Saint Elle and The Graduate Hotel in Nashville and designed by Lemiga Events. Before Simply Golden, Keyees was a venue manager in Nashville.

New Orleans, LA

ACCENT New Orleans is a destination management company that plans corporate events, incentive trips and VIP experiences in New Orleans, led by president and owner Diane Lyons. Its services span event planning and décor, galas and receptions, meeting planning (site selection, registration, hotel negotiations and AV), transportation including permits and police escorts, entertainment booking, and New Orleans experiences such as second-line parades, marching bands, float rides, dine-arounds, guided tours, team building and CSR projects. According to its site, it has been in business for more than 34 years and has worked with global brands, medical associations and Fortune 500 teams. It is a WBENC-certified women-owned business, a partner of the DMC Network, and says it was one of the first ADME-accredited members in New Orleans. Google reviews on its site describe sales kickoffs featuring drumline openings, second-line bands and Mardi Gras greeters.

New Orleans, LA

Live Event Productions is a New Orleans-area production partner for AV-heavy corporate, association and nonprofit events, founded in 2025 by executive producer Craig A. Trosclair. It describes itself as a production leadership and live event technology partner: it handles production planning, designs and coordinates audio, video, lighting, LED and scenic elements, produces Vectorworks CAD floorplans and 3D renderings, and provides executive producers and show callers. Its corporate page lists sales kickoffs and national meetings, leadership summits, user conferences, product launches, awards programs and trade shows among the events it supports. According to its site, the team brings more than 25 years of live event production experience, and it is certified by the SBA as a Veteran-Owned Small Business. Its LinkedIn posts describe work on the Digital Delta Symposium in Houston and a hybrid program at the JW Marriott Downtown Houston.