plenary Singapore + From Chicago to Orlando

Decorations for Chinese Lunar

New Year adorn Singapore’s Chinatown.

CONVENE ON SITE

A ‘City in a Garden’ — and Great for Meeting and Eating

— the largest of which, Singapore Island, measures only about 275 square miles and is heavily urbanized and development- focused. But what struck me during an exclusive visit hosted by the Singapore Tourism Board in January was the amount of greenery that surrounds, inhabits, and grows through nearly every space. You feel as though you’re enveloped in a lush and rich landscape in the midst of the bustling metropo- lis, which has become a major meetings destination in South- east Asia. Almost nowhere was this greening more evident than on

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my visit to the brand-new PARKROYAL on Pickering, which had opened just the week before, on Jan. 16. Designed as a

“hotel-in-a-garden,” the stunning 367-room PARKROYAL features gardens, waterfalls, and living walls that equal more than twice the property’s total land area. The property also has solar-energy-powered sky gardens and uses rain

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ingapore is known as both “Lion City” (based on the Malay word from which its English name is derived) and “City in a Garden.” It’s made up of 63 small islands

harvesting to keep its facilities hydrated, and its meeting and event spaces offer flexible configurations for up to 800 people, including a ballroom and six conference and meeting rooms. The Fullerton Hotel is located near the mouth of the

Singapore River, in a historic building that once served as the General Post Office and the Chamber of Commerce. Com- bining luxury and history, the five-star, 400-room property offers three ballrooms that can accommodate up to 600 peo- ple theater-style, and seven meeting rooms. Its smaller sister property, the Fullerton Bay Hotel, is located across the street, overlooking Marina Bay, and features custom-built floating pods that function as unique meeting and reception spaces. The magnificent Marina Bay Sands is a standalone casino

property built along Marina Bay that encompasses a resort with a 2,561-room hotel, a 1.3-million-square-foot conven- tion and exhibition center, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall (including a museum, two theaters, seven celebrity-chef restaurants, and high-end retail), and the world’s largest atrium casino.

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