Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
First opened in 1998, the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu offers more than 200,000 square feet of flexible exhibit hall space, more than 138,000 square feet of meetings space and a 35,000-squre-foot lobby for registering exhibitors and event attendees. The convention center has 47 breakout rooms and a 35,000-square-foot ballroom as well as a business center and an in-house audio-visual team. A 20,000-square-foot kitchen provides food services for the four-level facility that also has a 2.5-acre rooftop garden and state-of-the-art Internet and video-conferencing capabilities. Parking is available on the second-level parking area. The center has won several awards, including a Prime Site award for 12 consecutive years and being voted the world’s most beautiful convention center by members of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events.
Mesa Convention Center, Mesa, Arizona
Erected in 1979, the Mesa Convention Center is a full-service event facility located in the heart of downtown Mesa, Arizona, and is situated on 22 acres of park land. With three buildings and 15 meeting rooms, the site has 19,000 square feet of exhibition space and another 19,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. On-site catering services are provided by Ovations Food Services, and an outdoor amphitheater capable of hosting 5,000 people is located on the convention center’s campus. The Phoenix Marriot Mesa hotel is located next to the convention center and just a short drive from the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and the Mesa Phoenix Gateway Airport. For exhibitors, drayage and installation-and-dismantling services are provided by Premiere AV and Events.
Utah Valley Convention Center, Provo, Utah
One of the newest convention centers in the nation, the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo opened for business in July offers more than 83,000 square feet of meeting, pre-function and garden space. The LEED Silver Certified building also has a nearly 20,000-square-foot exhibit hall and an about 17,000-square-foot ballroom as well as more than 10,000 square feet of breakout meeting space and a more than 5,500-square-foot rooftop garden. A full-service kitchen provides food services, and 52,000 square feet of meeting space is available. The facility is nestled in the Utah Valley near Utah Lake and offers views of the nearby Wasatch Mountains. The Provo Municipal Airport is located within minutes of the facility, and Salt Lake City is situated 43 miles to the north.
Reno-Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada
Featuring five contiguous exhibition halls with 381,000 square feet of combined space, the Reno-Sparks Convention Center offers one of the best facilities outside of Las Vegas. Each hall had drive-in access with 19 freight doors – eight of which are drive-in doors. A large hangar door enables oversized equipment to be placed on the exhibition floors. The Mt. Rose Ballroom has 39,000 square feet of open, column-free space and can be divided into seven separate meeting rooms with fiber-optic lighting that can be programmed. And each of its 53 meeting rooms can handle up to 3,000 people. Each meeting space is located strategically near registration and exhibit areas, and the central registration lobby is 17,500 square feet of flexible space with dedicated storage areas. Some of the best hotels, casinos and resorts outside of Las Vegas are located near the convention center as well as the Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Ruidoso Convention Center, Ruidoso, New Mexico
Located in the relatively lightly populated community of Ruidoso, the Ruidoso Convention Center is situated on a golf course and provides 24,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space within view of the Southern Sacramento Mountains in south-central New Mexico. The convention center can be set up theater-style to seat 2,000, banquet-style to handle more than 1,400 or situated to handle up to 130 exhibition booths. Paved parking is available for 540 vehicles. The Sierra Blanca Regional Airport offers charter flight service, and the nearby Roswell Industrial Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, has daily commercial flights from Dallas-Fort Worth. Also located within a few hours’ drive are the Albuquerque International Sunport airport and the El Paso International Airport. Ruidoso also is located within a day’s drive of several large metropolitan areas, such as Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Tucson, Phoenix and Oklahoma City.
