Red Deer Travel and Things to Do Guide

Welcome to Cvent's MICE Guide to Red Deer, a city guide for MICE professionals. Red Deer is much more than just a convenient midway stop between Calgary and Edmonton; this vibrant, bustling city with a small town feel is a major hub for tourism, culture, heritage, and entertainment and business, as well as the home of extensive convention and exhibition facilities. Known for its plentiful sporting facilities and events, Red Deer is also a great choice for meetings, exhibitions, and conventions, offering a bounty of recreation, culture, and great eats for time spent outside of the boardroom.
The third-largest city in Alberta, Red Deer offers a growing, diversified economy focused on manufacturing, retail, agriculture, tourism, and oil and petrochemical sectors. The city's average resident age of less than 35 years makes Red Deer home to one of the youngest populations in Canada, but that doesn't mean this destination lacks in depth and growth; in fact, Red Deer serves as central Alberta's trading and distribution centre, linked on all sides by efficient transportation. Red Deer Regional Airport, situated 12 miles southwest of the city, serves as Alberta's third busiest airport, linking the city to Calgary, Kelowna, Fort McMurray, and Winnipeg. Once in Red Deer, visitors can hop aboard Red Deer transit buses, which serve such major destinations as the airport and Westerner Park, central Alberta's largest convention, tradeshow, agricultural, entertainment, and sports facility.
Spanning 320 acres and 150,000 square feet of meeting space, Westerner Park recently underwent an expansion project and offers a variety of indoor and outdoor event spaces, as well as fully integrated exhibition and convention facilities. Groups can gather in the spacious 7,819-seat ENMAX Centrium to the intimate 1,469-square-foot Lookout Room, with plenty of pavilions, meeting rooms and banquet spaces in between the two. Westerner Park hosts more than 1,500 events and 1.5 million visitors each year, and offers a variety of event services and plentiful parking.
In addition to its sprawling Westerner Park, Red Deer is home to a variety of unique venues perfectly positioned for group events to corporate teambuilding. The 217-acre Heritage Ranch offers groups unique opportunities to bond with horses and each other courtesy of its equine facilitated teambuilding program, while the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame & Museum invites groups to engage in some friendly competition with its Hockey Shootout goal net, or gather in a number of indoor spaces adjacent to its interactive exhibits. Groups can take guided wagon tours of the Red Deer's oldest farm at the Sunnybrook Farm Museum & Interpretive Centre, or enjoy afternoon tea service at Cronquist House, a lovingly restored Victorian style farmhouse that serves as a historic Red Deer symbol. Excitement awaits at the nearby Alberta Downs, a state-of the-art thoroughbred, quarter horse, and harness racing entertainment center with group event spaces; alongside wild animals at the unique 90-acre Discovery Wildlife Park zoo and sanctuary; or aboard a real steam or diesel-powered train courtesy of the entertaining Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions. Groups can also enjoy central Alberta's stunning natural beauty at such recreation sites as the Ellis Bird Farm, Kerry Wood Nature Centre and Bower Ponds.