THE LEGENDARY EVENTS BEST OF
Best Event Venue
Our current pick combines exceptional meeting space, destination appeal, flexibility, guest convenience, and the ability to make the venue itself one of the most memorable parts of the event.
A Great Venue Does More Than Hold the Event
The best event venues do far more than provide four walls, a stage, and enough chairs. They influence how guests arrive, where conversations happen, how easily the program flows, what attendees experience between sessions, and ultimately how the entire event feels.
A great venue should make planning easier while giving organizers enough flexibility to create something distinctive.
Legendary Events looks for venues that combine professional event capabilities with strong logistics, flexible spaces, guest convenience, and something guests will actually remember after they leave.
THE LEGENDARY EVENTS PICK
Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center
Our Pick for Best Event Venue
There are bigger convention centers. There are more intimate luxury hotels. And there are venues in the middle of virtually every major American city, but few places combine the scale of a major convention facility with the experience of a true destination resort quite like Gaylord Opryland.
The Nashville property offers more than 766,000 square feet of event space, six ballrooms, extensive exhibit facilities, more than 100 breakout and conference rooms, and accommodations for thousands of attendees—all within one enormous resort complex.
What makes it especially interesting for events, however, is everything outside the meeting rooms. Gaylord Opryland's soaring glass atriums, indoor gardens, waterfalls, restaurants, gathering spaces, entertainment options, and Nashville location give attendees an experience that feels dramatically different from spending several days inside a conventional conference hotel.
766,000
Sq. Ft. of Event Space
2,888
Hotel Rooms
6
Ballrooms
106
Breakout Rooms
10,000
Guests in One Space
Why Gaylord Opryland Made the Legendary List
The qualities that separate a memorable event destination from a building that simply has enough meeting space.
EVERYTHING UNDER ONE ROOF
Meeting rooms, ballrooms, exhibit halls, guest accommodations, restaurants, lounges, entertainment, and gathering spaces are all concentrated within one resort. That can dramatically simplify logistics for events with attendees staying multiple days.
ROOM TO CREATE
From executive meetings and breakout sessions to enormous general sessions, exhibitions, receptions, and gala dinners, the property provides planners with very different environments without requiring attendees to constantly travel between venues.
THE VENUE IS PART OF THE EXPERIENCE
Four expansive atriums filled with gardens and gathering spaces make Gaylord Opryland immediately recognizable. Attendees aren't simply walking through hotel corridors between sessions—the environment itself becomes part of the event with many seasonal elements adding to the experience.
BUILT FOR LARGE GROUPS
Handling a large conference involves much more than finding one room big enough for everyone. Guest rooms, breakout space, food service, loading access, pre-function areas, technology, transportation, and attendee movement all matter. Gaylord Opryland was designed around exactly those kinds of groups.
SEE WHAT WE MEAN
Experience Gaylord Opryland
It's difficult to understand the scale of Gaylord Opryland from a floor plan. The property combines major convention facilities with enormous glass-covered atriums, gardens, restaurants, gathering areas, entertainment, and resort amenities—all connected within one destination.
What to watch for: Look beyond the individual ballroom or meeting room. Notice how many different environments are available without attendees ever having to leave the resort. That's a major part of what makes the property stand out.
Best For
Gaylord Opryland is particularly well suited for multi-day events where meeting space, accommodations, entertainment, and attendee experience all need to work together.
National Conferences & Conventions
Corporate Meetings & General Sessions
Association Events
Trade Shows & Exhibitions
Awards, Galas & Large Celebrations
What It Different
Gaylord Opryland's biggest advantage may be that it manages to function as both a serious convention facility and a destination experience.
A planner can hold a large general session, divide attendees among dozens of breakout rooms, host an exhibition, organize an evening reception, provide restaurants and entertainment, and accommodate thousands of overnight guests without building the event around transportation between multiple properties.
But the real differentiator is what attendees experience between those scheduled moments.
The property's glass-covered atriums, gardens, waterfalls, restaurants, gathering areas, and entertainment options create places where people naturally walk, meet, eat, and spend time together. Marriott describes the resort as a destination unto itself rather than an average meeting hotel.
How Legendary Events Makes Its Selections
We don't believe a long résumé automatically makes someone the right choice for an event. Our selections focus on the things that matter when the room is full and the event is actually happening.
Experience
Have they successfully and consistently done this at a professional level?
Reputation
Is there meaningful evidence that planners and audiences trust them?
Event Fit
Do they understand professional events rather than just their individual craft?
Adabtability
Can they adjust when timing, audiences or circumstances change?
The X Factor
Is there something that separates them from dozens of other qualified choices?
Legendary Events selections are editorial recommendations, not guarantees or claims that one professional is objectively right for every event.
Keep Planning
Explore more Legendary Events recommendations for planning a better event.