The Washington
Convention Center
After months on the drawing
board, the Washington Convention Center in the nation’s
capital last month officially unveiled an innovative new online
tool to help planners more efficiently determine and manage their
exhibit and meeting space requirements.
The customized tool allows planners to
view hundreds of meeting room templates online, including myriad
banquet, theater and classroom setups, and then select the ones
that best serve their purposes while using the facility’s space to
its fullest potential (the center has 703,000 square feet of
exhibit space and 150,000 square feet of meeting space).
“This is a simple and accessible design
tool, which is going to save our customers time and money, because
it makes the entire space-planning process that much easier,” said
Dorree Mayo, manager of event and meeting services for the
convention center. Mayo spearheaded the five-person in-house team
in charge of the design and implementation stages of the
project.
In addition, the center reached out to
the members of its advisory board of past and prospective meeting
planner clients to contribute suggestions for making the tool
useful.