AUSTRALIA
- Down under in Australia, the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre recently opened a five-level, $140 million expansion, called BCEC on Grey Street. Beginning with its first event last February, the boutique-style expanded space has over 250 events booked. Designed specifically for small and medium-sized conferences, the 270,000-square-foot expansion includes terraces and patios with views of the city skyline, 20 new meeting rooms, two auditoriums and a sky-lit atrium providing natural light throughout the building. The façade is 85 percent glass and the center is also the home of Australia’s first dedicated alcohol tasting room in a convention center. www.bcec.com.au
ETHIOPIA
- Last January saw the inauguration of the African Union Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sponsored by the Chinese government and built on 111,000 square feet of land donated by the Ethiopian government, the $120 million complex includes a 2,500-capacity conference hall, a 681-seat conference hall, a caucus meeting room, a VIP reception area, a library and a medical center, among other facilities. Externally, there’s even a helipad, a sports field and a garden.
FRANCE
- Toulouse, France, is about to enter the initial impact assessment stages of a bold new project, the Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Exhibition Centre (PEX), which will theoretically connect the Garonne River with the Toulouse Airbus factory and function as both a congress center and a catalyst for surrounding urban development projects when completed in 2016. Designed by the OMA architectural firm in association with the Toulouse-based firms Puig Pujol Architectures and Sutter et Taillandier, the project will offer more than 1 million square feet of usable space, including to-be-configured external show areas and a main arena that opens to the outside. A new tram station will serve the exhibition center, with passengers boarding in front of the plaza at the center’s entrance, and a 500-meter internal promenade—complete with landscaped greenery—will guide visitors toward various exhibition halls.
SOUTH KOREA
- Truly a convention city in of itself, the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center, in Seoul, South Korea, won awards in customer service, indoor air quality, and achieved EarthCheck Silver Certification in 2011. The entire complex is a business and cultural hub, and includes the Korea World Trade Center, several hotels, an aquarium, a cinema complex, a kimchi museum, a remote airport terminal and Asia’s largest underground shopping mall at 85,000 square meters. For congresses, the convention center component is a four-floor venue offering more than 4 million square feet of space. Over 200 exhibitions and 2,000 conferences take place year-round, with more than 100,000 people visiting the entire complex each day. Almost a dozen different exhibitions can be accommodated at one time. www.coex.co.kr/eng
