Let's Meet in Indiana.

• Author: LEWERS, CHRISTINE
• Position: Brief Article

The state's major public convention centers

BLOOMINGTON CONVENTION CENTER

Located in the historic downtown district of Bloomington, the convention center has 24,000 square feet of meeting space, including a banquet hall and 11 meeting rooms. It can handle groups as small as five to as large as 500, with break-out rooms available as needed.

A Ford dealership operated for many years on the site, beginning in the early 1920s. In 1991, the property was purchased and renovated by the county, and opened as a convention center.

Today, the center has complete on-site catering, audio-visual services and communication facilities including Internet, fax, messaging and photocopying. The facility adjoins a 117-room Courtyard by Marriott, and is within walking distance of Indiana University and 35 downtown restaurants. An adjacent city parking lot is available to guests of the convention center and hotel.

Phone: 812/336-3681

www.bloomingtonconvention.com

EVANSVILLE AUDITORIUM & CONVENTION CENTER

The city cut the ribbon on its $35 million Evansville Auditorium and Convention Centre in October 1999. The new center puts Evansville back into the convention business since the privately owned 40,000-square-foot Green Convention Center closed in 1995.

The 292,000-square-foot center sits on the site of the old Vanderburgh Auditorium and Convention Center. It fills a city block and houses a 2,500-seat performing arts center, a 40,000-square-foot exhibition hall and a 14,000-square-foot ballroom that partitions into four separate rooms. The center also has two 5,760-square-foot meeting rooms, each of which can be divided into smaller meeting spaces. Two other meeting rooms add another 700 square feet to the facility.

Second-level lounges totaling almost 3,000 square feet serve as support spaces for conventions and can be booked for parties and receptions. The center also has an industrial-equipped kitchen and a full-service box office and ticket outlet.

The new center can host anything from a Broadway show to a wedding reception. It also can accommodate meetings ranging in size from 12 to 4,000. Break-out rooms and removable partitions mean the center can host several events at once and be configured in many ways. The facility has in-house food service and accommodations are available at the adjacent Radisson hotel or other downtown hotels.

Phone: 812/435-5500

www.evansvillecentre.com

FORT WAYNE -- ALLEN COUNTY WAR MEMORIAL COLISEUM ARENA

This 50-year-old facility's arena hosts some of the largest indoor events in the state, including rock concerts, Stars on Ice, World Championship Wrestling and midget car races. Beginning this spring, a $35 million renovation of the arena will increase its seating capacity to 13,000, completely modernize its lighting and sound systems and improve accessibility for the disabled.

In addition to the arena space, the Coliseum's 180,000 square feet of exhibition, meeting and banquet space is also available for rent. The 108,000-square-foot Exhibition Center seats as many as 7,500, but easily partitions into smaller areas. The Coliseum's 40,000-square-foot Exhibition Hall is available for rent as a single unit or in combination with the Exhibition Center. The facility has nine meeting rooms, with the Appleseed...