Meet Me In …

FULLY BOOKED: The new western expansion of the Vancouver Convention Centre (foreground) has helped the older eastern building (left background) stay full; spacious pre-function seating (bottom)

Vancouver Convention Centre West
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Cost: $883.2 million
Size: 338,000 square feet (471,000 square
feet of space with combined buildings)
Completion date: April 2009

Hosting a conference in the picturesque city of Vancouver is on many corporate and association wish lists, so it’s no surprise that the demand for conference space in the city often outweighs the supply. “We had a number of conventions considering Vancouver and, with the existing facilities, we weren’t able to handle it,” says Ken Cretney, general manager, Vancouver Convention Centre. “There was a pent-up demand for additional space.” In 1994, to accommodate a 12,000-person event, the centre even converted the parking garage into an exhibit hall.

The following year, operator BC Pavilion Corp. unveiled a plan to expand, but it was a start-stop project for some time, says Cretney. Finally, the case was made that there was a concrete opportunity to see larger conventions (the kind to date held only in select convention hubs like Chicago and Las Vegas) and, after the west building was designated as the broadcast centre for last month’s Olympics, funding from senior governments came through. It hasn’t been quiet since the closing ceremonies, though. Booking calendars for 2011 and 2012 are the largest and fullest to date, says Cretney.

Forty per cent of the new west building is built over water and houses the largest waterfront ballroom in Canada at 55,000 square feet. Built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards, the west building’s green initiatives include heating and cooling systems that make use of seawater, on-site water treatment, a fish habitat built into the foundation and a six-acre “living roof” that houses indigenous plants and beehives and recovers rainwater for irrigation.

The floor-to-ceiling glass throughout highlights the area’s natural assets such as the harbour and mountain views, but it’s the additional square footage that has given the centre a much-needed lift. It can now hold multiple events simultaneously, each one with separate access and function space. The centre spans two buildings (the east – the “Sails” building that served as the Canada Pavilion at Expo 86 – and the west) and is designed as a series of units that can be added or subtracted depending on the event and the need for space.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS: The Co-operators Centre can handle sports, concerts and trade shows; it features no fewer than six ice rinks (bottom)

The Co-operators Centre
Location: Regina, Sask.
Cost: $70 million
Completion Date: March 2010

Bim Pandya, director, facilities sales, attributes the overwhelming demand for ice surfaces and the large sporting market for the recent redevelopment of Regina’s Evraz Place, a 102-acre event complex with over one million square feet of indoor space. Phase 1 of the refit was completed this month and includes six new multi-purpose arenas, new parking capacity and a new 1,500-seat stadium with a full-service concession and a lounge, collectively known as the Co-operators Centre.

With 7,000 hours of available ice time, the primary use of the six arenas is for hockey and other ice sports, says Pandya, but the multi-purpose part comes into play for trade shows and other events such as the Canadian Western Agribition, the Royal Red (Canadian National Arabian and Half Arabian Championship Horse Show) and Buffalo Days. The arenas are connected to both the Credit Union EventPlex and the Queensbury Convention Centre and hosted some of the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championship events last December.

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