Convention center

A convention center (American English; conference centre outside the USA)[1] is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees. Very large venues, suitable for major trade shows, are sometimes known as exhibition halls. Convention centers typically have at least one auditorium and may also contain concert halls, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and conference rooms. Some large resort area hotels include a convention center.

See also: List of convention and exhibition centers

"Conference center" redirects here. For the building owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, see Conference Center (LDS Church).

The Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Germany

Types

• Meeting facilities with lodging: hotels that include their own convention space in addition to accommodation and other related facilities, known as convention hotels.
• Meeting facilities without lodging: are convention centers that do not include accommodation; usually located adjacent to or near a hotel(s).[2]
• Other: any convention and meeting facilities designed to hold large numbers of people. Can exist alone (e.g., stadiums, arenas, parks, etc.) or within other structures (e.g., university lecture halls, museums, theaters). Usually do not include accommodation.[3]

Some historic centers

19th-century exhibition halls

Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building, host of the 1880 World's Fair

See also: Victorian architecture

• 1850 Bingley Hall (destroyed by fire in 1984), Birmingham, England[4]
• 1851 The Crystal Palace (destroyed by fire in 1936), London, England
• 1855 Palais de l'Industrie (dismantled in 1897), Paris, France
• 1873 Alexandra Palace, London, England[5]
• 1876 Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
• 1878 Exhibition Place, Toronto, Canada
• 1878 La Rural, Buenos Aires, Argentina[6]
• 1878 Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
• 1879 Garden Palace (destroyed by fire in 1882), Sydney, Australia
• 1880 Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia
• 1898 Aberdeen Pavilion, Ottawa, Canada
• 1898–1903 Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, Netherlands

20th-century exhibition halls

• 1900 Grand Palais, Paris, France
• 1909 Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
• 1955 McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 1959 Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
• 1974 Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
• 1976 Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• 1979 Internationales Congress Centrum, Berlin, Germany
• 1981 Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA
• 1983 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, China
• 1988 Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
• 1990 Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado, USA
• 1993 Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• 1997 Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan

21st-century exhibition halls

• 2001 Bethlehem Convention Palace, Bethlehem
• 2008 BT Convention Centre, Liverpool, UK
• 2008 Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
• 2012 Convention Center Poet Ronaldo Cunha Lima, João Pessoa, Brazil
• 2017 AU Convention Center, Visakhapatnam, India

Image gallery

• 
  Exhibition Hall of the Makaryev Fair
• 
  Kongresshalle Berlin – House of the Cultures of the World
• 
  The Philippine International Convention Center
• 
  Metro Toronto Convention Centre
• 
  Siglo XXI Convention Centre in Mérida, Mexico
• 
  McCormick Place in Chicago, the largest Convention center in North America
• 
  The back entrance of the PBH convention center in Zuidlaren, Netherlands
• 
  Jerusalem International Convention Center
• 
  View of the west portion of the San Diego Convention Center from West Harbor Drive. The San Diego Convention Center is one of the largest in North America and is home to Comic-Con International
• 
  Hall #6 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India
• 
  Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the first LEED-certified convention center in North America
• 
  Corferias Exposition Center in Bogota, Colombia
• 
  Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon
• 
  Beurs van Berlage convention center Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• 
  Arusha International Conference Centre Arusha, Tanzania
• 
  Birchwood Conference Centre, Johannesburg
• 
  Riocentro convention center in Rio de Janeiro, the largest in Latin America, and also a 2016 Olympic venue.
• 
  Convention Center Poet Ronaldo Cunha Lima in João Pessoa.

See also

• Stadium
• List of convention and exhibition centers
• List of convention centers named after people

References

1. "English definition of "convention centre"". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
2. Wood, Roy C.; Brotherton, Bob (2008). The SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. pp. 413–414. ISBN 978-1-4129-0025-6.
3. Convention Industry Council (February 2011). The Economic Significance of Meeting to the U.S. Economy (Report). PwC.
4. "The History of Conference Centers". Lane End Conference Center. 26 January 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
5. "Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill and Wood Green, North London". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
6. "La Rural | Predio Ferial de Buenos Aires - Centro de Exposiciones, Congresos, Convenciones y Eventos". www.larural.com.ar. Retrieved 2016-11-10.

External links

• Historic Conference Centres of Europe