February 20, 2008 – (Gainesville, FL) -- The Gainesville/Alachua County Visitors and
Convention Bureau is conducting a Spring Conference Grant Workshop for meeting and
conference planning professionals Thursday, April 3 at 10 a.m. at the Alachua County’s
Community Treasures Conference Room located in the Downtown Administration Building
located at 12 SE 1st Street.  
 
 The Gainesville/Alachua County Visitors and Convention Bureau is offering their 2008
Conference Grant Program this Spring to qualified meeting planners who conduct their meetings
or conferences in Gainesville/Alachua County.   A pool of up to $40,000 in grant funding is
available during this grant cycle.
 
 “The workshop is the perfect forum to learn all the particulars of the Grant program and to
make the application process easier and more accurate.  Attendance is not required to qualify,
but it can be very helpful for a meeting planner to understand the entire grant process,” said
Nancy Fischer, CMP, the Bureau’s Director of Sales.  
 
 To qualify, meeting professionals must complete the grant application, which is available
) and satisfy a number of criteria including confirming
online at:  (www.visitgainesville.com/grants
that their meeting or event produced hotel room nights in Gainesville/Alachua County between
July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011.  Individual grants cap at $10,000 and are available to corporate,
association, or non-profit, public or privately-funded planners.
   
 be submitted during the official grant cycle
  Although online now, applications may only
which opens Tuesday, April 1 and with the deadline on Wednesday, April 30 at 4 p.m.  All
qualified applications will be reviewed by the County’s nine-member Tourist Development Council
(TDC) in May, with recipients announced at the June TDC meeting.  
 
 The Bureau also offers planners a Conference Grant in the fall which offers a pool of
$75,000 in funding. The Conference Grant program, now in its eighth cycle, has awarded
approximately 91 grants totaling more than $628,000 in funding.
 
For additional information, planners may contact Nancy Fischer (e-mail:  
 or John Pricher (jop@visitgainesville.com) at the Gainesville VCB
nfischer@visitgainesville.com
at (352) 374-5260 or toll-free at (866)778-5002.