The Incentive for Excellence

With its year-round Mediterranean climate, extraordinary beaches, celebrated golf courses, active harbor and upscale properties, Newport Beach is an ideal destination for group travel and meetings. It is sophisticated, gorgeous, cultural, active and just plain fun. In fact, Newport Beach has been the backdrop for many movies and TV shows over the years and with good reason – it is stunningly beautiful.

If those aren’t enough reasons to bring you next program to Newport Beach, then perhaps the following list will entice you:

The Meritage Collection blends iconic, one-of-a-kind places with locally inspired enrichment programs designed for the curious traveler. Débuting in 2013, the Meritage Collection is comprised of six hotels & resorts throughout California and Hawaii, representing more than 1400 rooms and nearly 149,000 square feet of premier indoor meeting and event space.

As Canada’s premier meeting and incentive destination, Banff and Lake Louise is your next must-see and must-experience location. With soaring mountain peaks, and protected nature, it is a place to pursue the moments that will give meaning. The moments of feeling alive.

SITE SoCal would like to thank Tom Bwarie from Signature Hand Engraving for being a strong ally and sponsor over the years. Tom is dependable and a true expert in his field. Below is his story that we found captivating and we hope you do, too.

Tom Bwarie didn’t know what to do. Almost overnight, his thriving retail business had disintegrated.

It was 2008, the pit of the worst global recession since World War II. For the first time in Bwarie’s 30 years as a business owner, the phone stopped ringing, and sales calls came up empty. A fortune in inventory sat stagnant on the shelves.

“I was so frustrated and depressed,” Bwarie remembers. “It was more than scary.”

And yet in the midst of crisis, Tom Bwarie discovered the opportunity for reinvention. His current company, Signature Hand Engraving, perfectly blends his business acumen, innate generosity, and lifelong passion for art.