Convention center

See also: List of convention and exhibition centers

For other uses, see Convention Center station.

The Capitol View Conference Center in Washington, D. C.

File:SwissTech Convention Center Auditoriums.jpg

Inside the big auditorium of the Swiss Tech Convention Center.

A convention center (American English; conference centre outside the USA) 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 centres. 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.

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
• 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
• 1876 Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
• 1878 Exhibition Place, Toronto, Canada
• 1878 La Rural, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 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
• 1912 McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 1959 Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
• 1974 Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
• 1979 Internationales Congress Centrum, Berlin, Germany
• 1981 Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA
• 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, Palestina
• 2008 Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Image gallery

• 
  Exhibition Hall of the Makaryev Fair
• 
  Kongresshalle Berlin - House of the Cultures of the World
• The Philippine International Convention Center
  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
• 
  Convention center Salta City, Argentina
• 
  Beurs van Berlage convention center Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• 
  Arusha International Conference Centre Arusha, Tanzania
• Riocentro convention center in Rio de Janeiro, the largest in Latin America, and also a 2016 Olympic venue.
  Riocentro convention center in Rio de Janeiro, the largest in Latin America, and also a 2016 Olympic venue.

See also

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

External links

• Historic Conference Centres of Europe