Vancouver Island Conference Centre - Nanaimo, B.C. Canada
N 49° 09.892 W 123° 56.204
10U E 431711 N 5446205
The brand new VICC opened June 07, 2008.
Waymark Code: WM3YT4
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 06/07/2008
Views: 65
The idea for the Vancouver Island Conference Centre was first put forth in 2000 by the Nanaimo City council of the day. It has taken 8 years of planning, a referendum, a couple of failed negotiations for a public private partnership, and lots of politics to arrive at the grand opening on June 7th, 2008.
Actual construction started in June 2002. Initial budget was $52.5 Million but some concerns with the foundation, the centre is built on an area of Nanaimo that was a water inlet at one time, caused some design changes and extra work to prepare the site once demolition was completed. This began the increases in the budget that eventually topped out at $72.5 Million. The very high tech centre has 38,000 sq ft of flexible convention space and will support groups of up to 1,300 delegates.
There are up to 9 meeting rooms with full wireless access, digital way-finding, and global broadcast capabilities, so that conventions can tele-conference on a global scale. There are plasma screens at the doors to each room to be used for information on the meeting inside or video presentations related to the convention being held on a particular day.
The Nanaimo City council now uses the Shaw Auditorium for their meetings and held the first on May 26th, 2008.
The first Convention will be the Pacific Northwest Economic Developers Council this summer. Jim Owens, the fist Director of Sales and Marketing for the VICC stated in the handout for the open house that more than 80 events are booked, some as far in advance as 2014.
Information for this waypoint came from the VICC website and a handout that was given out during the open house on June 7th, 2008.