Way past its best-before date
Industry expert: Time to replace Halifax convention centre
By BILL POWER
Business Reporter
TALK ABOUT trash talk.
The 26-year-old World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax was sharply criticized Thursday by an industry expert who said the name of the complex is at the top of a long list of its shor tcomings.
“The first thing they should do is change the name from convention centre to confer ence centre, because this is not really a con vention centre," said Michael Hughes of Tradeshow Week magazine, a publication widely regarded as the voice of the industry in the United States and Canada.
“As far as the convention industry is con cerned, Halifax is hardly in the game," he said in an interview.
The industry researcher and writer did not have to worry about bashing the down town complex. Officials at the World Trade and Convention Centre are aggressively lobbying for a replacement and talk often about its deficiencies.
Hughes turned both thumbs down when asked how the trade centre holds up to com plexes in similar markets. He said the Hali fax facility lacks assorted basic amenities required by the industry, such as proper ex hibition space and appropriate loading docks.
Even as a conference centre the facility falls short, he said.
“This place was out of date 10 years ago. It very much is in line with conference centres designed in the ’70s and ’80s, which cannot hold their own against increasing competi tion from communities that have recently built new facilities or have major expansions and reno vations on the drawing board," he said.
Hughes was pulled into the trade centre debate in Nova Sco tia when the opposition group Save the View used numbers from Tradeshow Week to back their assertion the convention centre industry is on the decline in North America. Hughes later disputed the way those numbers were used to support arguments against a new centre for Halifax. The Save the View organiza tion wants the Dexter govern ment to nix a proposed $100-million commitment to a convention centre to be included in a major development pro posed for the former Chronicle Herald site on Argyle Street.
Hughes admitted he was not up to date on the latest develop ments relating to the $400-million Nova Centre Global Trade and Finance proposal put forward by Joe Ramia’s Rank Inc.
The developer is supposed to have a final plan and cost esti mate ready for the province by July 19.
“I don’t know all the particu lars, but it is exciting to see such a robust debate underway. It’s part of the process."
Hughes was in town to talk about industry trends at the invi tation of the Atlantic chapter of Meeting Professionals Interna tional.
After speaking to the group, he gave the proposed Nova Centre two thumbs up. He was especial ly keen about the inclusion of a hotel in the plan.
“Many big convention centres are located in the outskirts of North American urban centres and are unable to provide the sort of convergence of visitors and community that you have the potential to achieve here," he said.
“This has been the key to the success of Las Vegas as the top exhibition and convention cen tre destination in North Ameri ca. Out-of-town participants at these events want to be where the action is. They do not want to jump into a cab to go to another part of the city at the end of the day."
Hughes said decision makers in Nova Scotia should consider the successful track record of the existing trade centre and look at the long-term benefits of com bining some public money with private money for a successful venture in a development-hun gry downtown.
“The hotel will be successful because it is part of the new con vention centre. The new conven tion centre will be successful be cause it has the hotel to include in its list of amenities."
There are critics of the provin cial government’s possible $100-million commitment to the Nova Centre project.
However, attendees at the gath ering of Meeting Professionals International were talking only about potential benefits for Nova Scotia of a state-of-the-art con vention centre in the heart of Ha lif ax.
“If we get the word tomorrow this project is a go, we’ll have a list of 206 organizations that could potentially come here," said Pat Lyell, with Destination Halif ax.
“We cannot try to sell to these people at this time because we have nothing to sell them."
Critics insist the convention and trade show industry is on the decline and the government should pull out of the project.
(
[email protected])
Prev
Linear Mode
