Today’s attendees need buildings that are intentionally designed for them, maintains Michael Lockwood, convention centers design director for Populous, a Kansas City-based international firm with project credits in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City and Sydney, Australia, among others. “People want more intimate settings that make them feel important.”
Enter next-generation convention center design.
“We do this by breaking down the scale of a building so users don’t feel they are lost in the size,” he says. “Though centers still need large exhibit halls and ballrooms, meeting rooms and spaces should be more nimble to accommodate smaller numbers of people.”
They should be about more than delivery of content.
“People want different experiences, not the same rooms and corridors everywhere they go in the building,” Lockwood says.
The best convention center design connects attendees with the destination and embraces the outdoors when possible, Lockwood believes.
“Convention centers are usually located in urban cores where things are happening every few feet, so they need to continue those experiences for people, not isolate them in big boxes,” he says.
Populous’ design for San Antonio’s recently completed renovation of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center brought meeting spaces on the mezzanine level that look down on the grand lobby, yielding the feel of a courtyard. At ground level, there’s a market cafe. It all presents authentic experiences for attendees that reflect the destination they occupy rather than take away from it, he says.
The new International Convention Centre Sydney’s meeting rooms are on the building’s side, which provides views of a nearby park and Darling Harbor.
“Our convention center projects are about helping people connect with the world around them, not about living in a box,” Lockwood says. “This doesn’t have to mean a complete redo of a building. It might be just different lighting, furniture and colors.”
The point, he says, is that meeting organizers and convention centers can no longer expect attendees to disconnect from their work and personal lives for three days. The future of meetings is about helping people stay as connected as their devices allow them to be.
