A gourmet coffee truck-fueled “All aboard!” kicks off this Texas Hill Country culinary jaunt through the rolling hills just one hour west of Austin, Texas. Attendees are asked to arrive and gather around the vintage-inspired, rolling dispenser-of-goodness as it delivers a morning blast of coffee or tea in the form of hand-steamed cappuccinos, blended frappuccinos or even just a cup o’ joe – straight up.

As the touring bus leaves the downtown Hilton, a guide begins to relay the best-kept-secret about Texas. As it turns out, around the turn of the century, Texas’ horticultural heartiness played a major part in saving the entire French wine industry. And the story goes on . . . .

“Foodies” around the globe have arrived at the first destination to experience the “character” simply referred to as Mr. Olive. As a dubbed “olivoligist,” this heartfelt lecturer has crafted the most enchanting way to communicate the knowledge and passion he has for growing olives, creating olive oil and originating olive-based recipes. This humor infused experience wraps up as the attendees enjoy a light lunch that includes locally sourced foods – all accompanied with a variety of olive oils.

Guests leave the hilltop orchard and soon find themselves arriving at a charming Texas Hill Country vineyard and winery. This afternoon’s tour features a picturesque vineyard stroll, Texas Hill Country wine tastings, historical insights and the opportunity for shopping (coolers provided for perishables).

As the afternoon winds down, guests arrive at the final tour destination – an architecturally delightful “ranch” that features a beautifully appointed and art-filled Italian-esque lodge, slate swimming pool and rolling walking paths. Greeted by cold drinks, assorted cheese trays and fresh towels, guests are welcomed into the lodge for a quick introduction to the chef and a glimpse of the beautifully arranged, locally-sourced foods that have inspired the evening meal. Guests are then escorted to the pool area where the most pressing decision before dinner is a refreshing dip, an idyllic hammock nap under a mighty Texas oak, or an afternoon walk through the gentle hills.

In the early evening, the chef invites the attendees to a full-service outdoor dinner under the Texas sky (rain plan pavilion also available). This true farm-to-table experience features only Texas Hill Country sourced components including meat, vegetables, cheeses, breads, wines and micro-brews.

After the slow dine, guests load for departure. Each is provided a beautifully wrapped dessert to-go box that includes the chef’s recipes as well as miniature bottles of olive oil and red wine.

The CLINK Details:

• Tours available to groups of #12 – #250
  
• Customized itineraries provided.
• Full day program (half day with variation available)
• Great for: birthdays, executive groups, conference excursions, women’s groups, supperclubs
• Request more information.
  

We are witnessing a new evolution of corporate “retreats” that could (and should) be labeled corporate “CHARGEs!”. What is coming out of these circle-the-wagons meetings can only be defined as refreshing.

No one is denying that the meetings + conventions and destination management industry saw many challenges last year. It may also be too soon to call a new trend, sustainable. What we know is that there appears to be a sea change of those unwilling to wait to see what “survives”–instead they are defining how their organization THRIVES.

According to the recent RFPs landing at our doorstep, we can almost imagine executive teams around the world asking themselves, “What do our people need?”.  A nice percentage of answers must sound something similar to…”to know that we will continue to invest in education, training and development,” ” to know that we are committed to creativity in business,” “to know that we take our responsibility to the members of our team very seriously.”

One of the most primal ways in which this is being demonstrated is with the help of teambuilding programs such as The Drum Cafe. As a program opener, closer or mid-week spark, many groups are bringing in the global group (headquartered in the Texas Hill Country) to facilitate an atmosphere of cooperation. This carefully planned and executed program is not just one of performance art. The pre-conference interviews, work and customization which goes into each program had one executive remarking,”…he wove in more about our company than some of our employees understand.”

What the drumming teambuilding program demonstrates:

Breaking down of barriers to create a more open organization.
Alignment to a common goal, mission or vision.
Improved Communications through accurate feedback.
Accelerated Productivity by motivating staff and getting them to listen to each other.

Through a musical round-about exploration of leadership and diversity that one just must experience to understand, this thought-provoking and highly effective program aligns teams. “One beat” comes to signify the place at which all organizations must arrive to better define success….down market or not.

“Mission accomplished, tenfold.” -Global Oil Executive

Arguably the fastest growing wine-centered destination spot in the country, the Texas hill country is alive with activity. Nestled in the rich soil of the surrounding rolling landscape of Austin, Texas are 24 separate Texas wineries. All within a 1.5 hour jaunt of the city, the diverse properties offer something for each corporate/organization audience.

With five million annual visitors, the year-round climate allows for varied seasonal experiences. For companies and groups looking for an escape from the city with a great return on their investment, these close-by venues offer incredible value for week-day events.

Customer Appreciation Tastings Looking for a WOW to say WE APPRECIATE YOU? Whisk away a worthy group and treat them to an incredible day/evening of food and wine appreciation. Often paired with local ranches and farms, CLINK creates a signature tasting and hearty meal under the Texas sky (or covered pavilion). Bring in an industry spokeperson or noted speaker and the event is complete.

Team Building Program Step out of the city, re-group and enjoy a team building retreat featuring exercises around signature programs including; Wine Maker role playing, Cooking Throw-down + wine pairing, comparative tastings, etc.

Incentive Dinners Just want to say THANK YOU to a group or organization? Pamper them with a custom farm-to-table menu and wine pairing.

Retreats/Board + Team Meetings Looking for a little privacy to plan, review, create? Take over the grounds of a winery and design a multi-use retreat throughout the day. Facilitators (verbal and visual) available.

Informational Programs Da Vinci knew that when creativity was ignited in one area, it overflowed freely into others. Spark the creative juices and bring in experts to discuss Liquid 401k’s, Red wine health data, the historical prevalence of Texas roots in saving the European wine trade, affordable wine paletes, fail-safe ways in which to choose a wine to pair with meal, plus much more….

Fundraising events With enough room to stretch out under the Texas sky, showcase your cause throughout the winery grounds. With day time or evening times available, create something your patrons will be chatting about for the next year.

With a golden vendor database, the CLINK team regularly custom designs gatherings to fit the profile and culture of a company/organization. Have a annual event you’d like to breathe fresh air into? Consider bringing it out West–to the Texas Hill Country wineries.

The Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau (Austin CVB) has launched a new mobile application that serves as an interactive site itinerary and destination management tool for meeting planners, event attendees and clients considering Austin as a meeting or event destination. Aptly named The Austin iTinerary, the application invites users to download their site visit or group schedule, track appointments, get in touch with venue contacts, view maps, and add comments to each item for future reference.

The Austin CVB developed this mobile application to accommodate early-adopter clients who are already using their phones and PDAs for scheduling, taking notes and finding information. The Bureau offers this paperless itinerary as an option for each client participating in a site visit (paper itineraries are still produced for clients that prefer them).  Clients can simply download their customized schedule, including a summary of the destination, hotel details, Convention Center information, images, videos, music, maps of the city and information on key restaurants, attractions and more.  Since the program is web-based, the Bureau can make last-minute changes to a client’s itinerary without additional downloads.  Furthermore, the user can input notes below each iTinerary listing, which helps them keep all their information and impressions in one, easily-accessible place.  The application also offers a print function so the user can make a hard copy from their regular computer.

“With the rapid growth of mobile technologies for Blackberrys, iPhones and other smartphones, the opportunity to leverage this technology for the meetings industry has never been greater,” says Roy Benear, Senior Vice President of the Austin CVB.  “We realized after much reformatting and revamping of our paper itineraries that there must be a more effective way to facilitate clients’ visits to Austin.  We worked with our customer advisory board to brainstorm effective programs and now we can say – to use a term – we have an app for that.”

Benear adds, “To our knowledge, the Austin CVB is the first destination marketing organization to take advantage of this technology for this purpose.  We see it as our first venture into the mobile realm, and its success will undoubtedly lead us to create more applications in the future.”

The Austin iTinerary will also be used to facilitate events, press trips, and partner communications.  For example, the Austin CVB recently utilized the application to facilitate a Washington, DC sales mission by loading the sales call schedule into the phone and sharing the link with accompanying partners.

Rob Hampton, vice president of sales for the Austin CVB, remarks, “The Austin iTinerary was a hit during our recent DC mission; and our hotel and Convention Center partners loved it.  It allowed us all to stay on the same page – literally – while sharing comments with one another.”

This mobile application is the latest in a series of technological and interactive innovations in Texas’ capital city.  The Austin Convention Center recently upgraded its wireless network to simultaneously serve more than 7,000 users or download the entire catalogue of the Library of Congress in just three days.  Earlier this year, the Austin CVB received the U.S. Travel Association’s Destiny Award for interactive marketing based on the tech-savvy user planning and creative sharing functions at www.AustinTexas.org.

The future is here. Welcome….and which room did you say Breakout #3 is?