A good place to visit. Greenville, South Carolina, is enjoying a renaissance built around a vibrant, European-style downtown centered on Falls Park. Near the conference venue, the highlight of Falls Park is a beautiful curved suspension bridge designed for pedestrians to view the natural falls of the Reedy River. Reflecting diverse cuisines, numerous restaurants, many with sidewalk seating, can be found within a block of Main Street.

The climate in South Carolina’s Upstate region is nearly perfect in late March and early April. The mean high temperature is at that time of year is approximately 70E F. (21E C.), and the mean low is approximately 45E F. (7E C.). Typically, spring flowers are in bloom, and new leaves are appearing on the trees that line the streets in downtown Greenville.

The North American headquarters for BMW and Michelin, Greenville is rapidly becoming a center for automotive engineering, as reflected by the creation in recent years of Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research, a new high-tech campus that is the base for university-corporate partnerships for graduate education, research, and product development. Asian corporations (e.g., Fuji; Hitachi) also have a major presence in the area.

A good base for excursions in the American South. Greenville is located midway on the Interstate 85 corridor that is the base for much of the economic development and population growth in the New South. Within about a 2-hr drive can be found two major metropolitan areas with international airports (i.e., Atlanta, the hub for Delta, and Charlotte, the hub for US Airways), the state capital (Columbia), and a mountain resort city (Asheville) that is a center of arts and crafts and that is a major gateway to national parks and forests in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains. Also within driving range (4 to 5 hr) are the historic port cities and ocean resorts of Charleston, Beaufort, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.

Washington, DC, is about a 1-hr plane ride away, and numerous other major cities in the U.S. East, Midwest, and Southeast are within 2 hr by air. Indeed, Greenville sits approximately midway between New York City and Miami. The Greenville-Spartanburg airport (GSP) is served by Allegiant, American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US airlines, with direct flights to most airline hubs in the eastern half of the United States.