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The site that I chose for the visit analysis was the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center. From what I could see from the outside, I thought this building had been built within the past 2 years. I went online and saw that the building opened in January 2006. I did more research on the facility and services it had offered. The facility is in a great location. I was able to find some statistics for the general area the expo center is centered. The expo center is located off Interstate 95 exit 130, which is approximately one hour from Washington, D.C., and one hour from Virginia’s Capitol. The expo center is located in Central Park, which is a 2.4 million square foot area that contains major retail, restaurant, and other leisure activities. Central Park is part of a tourism concept that is known as Celebrate Virginia. It is claimed that this region services over 30,000 visitors each day. Other draws to the area include Cannon Ridge Golf club, which is a championship golf club, and the historic town of Old Town Fredericksburg, which is approximately five minutes from the Expo.

The Fredericksburg Expo Center’s Exhibit Hall is 80,000 square feet with the capacity to hold 403 10’x10’ show booths, with the ability to allow 3400 people. The Hall can be split into two separate halls. Exhibit Hall A, the larger of the two, is 45,000 square feet, with the capacity to hold 233 10’x10’ show booths, while Exhibit Hall B is 35,000 square feet with the capacity to hold 170 10’x10’ show booths. There are several ways which to bring materials into the building. There are three loading docks, and if the show or exhibitioners have the need, there are two oversized doors, which allow access to unload right on the exhibit floor.  Both Exhibit A and B, have its own food court and restroom.

The Expo Center has all utilities available from the ceiling. The services provided give an event planner a wide range of options for each use. The services provide are electric, water, drain, voice and data connections, PA system, fully zoned HVAC and lighting systems, in-house Housekeeping and decorating.[1]

Along with the exceptionally sized exhibition area, the Expo Center contains five meeting rooms with two larger than the other three. The two larger are roughly the same, and the three smaller are the approximately the same dimensions as well. Each of the meeting rooms has state of the art video conferencing, wired and wireless internet for business meetings, etc.

There is also one large ballroom located on the Southwest section of the building. The Ball Room is a 10,000 square foot room that can be split up into six 45’x38’rooms. Each of these rooms can be independent from each other, which means that room temperature, lighting, and sound are all controlled within the room.

I was able to go to the Expo Center to see it in Action. The Center had two Exhibits going on: a computer show and gun show. The parking was simple and not complicated. There were a lot of cars, but the design of the parking lot enabled cars to let their passengers off at the places where the busses usually would let off and enabled other cars to pass normally without causing a back-up. Though majority of the parking spaces in front of the Expo were all filled with cars, there were plenty of parking spaces available on the west side of the Expo, which to me shows the facility had plenty of capacity.

The entrance to the Expo Center is in the complete center of the building. The entrance is on ground level allowing ease of access to disabled individuals. There are two convenient bus drops, which do not hinder the flow of traffic from cars. There are 1200 parking spaces offered by the Expo Center, and there are 6 doors, which lead into the lobby. To the left and right of the lobby is the ticket office with 3 Ticket windows. In this particular case when I was able to see the facility in action, I noticed that they split the ticket office up to accommodate both exhibitions. The gun show was in the larger of the two exhibitions, which would make sense because the gun show draws a larger crowd in Fredericksburg, VA, than the computer show, which was put in Exhibition B. One thing the site does not tell you is you can rent out booth space in a show, and do not need to purchase the entire exhibit space. I noticed this because the computer show was only half of Exhibit B. Even with two shows in the same building, it did not seem like overcrowding. The facility can easily handle the proposed number of people without being too cramped.

The Fredericksburg Expo Center would be an excellent venue for numerous events. Based on the sheer size of the Exhibit halls, one could host a large consumer show or in some cases two medium size shows. Another use for this center could be for business meetings. Businesses could use one of the five meeting rooms using the state of the art technology and sufficient seating. The Large ballroom or the six separate ballrooms could host banquets, formal dinners, or receptions.

Looking at this venue from a planner’s perspective proved to be easier than expected. Granted I did have other information about the site, but just a visit would not have allowed certain knowledge. I do believe this is an excellent venue choice for events because of its prime location, variable size to suit event needs, easy access to utilities, cuisine selection, and state of the art technology.

Alternative Sources (Beyond what I saw at the site):

http://www.fredericksburgexpocenter.com

http://www.fredericksburgexpocenter.com/event_planning/Fred expo Info kit package_May 2007.pdf

Appendix A

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[1] http://www.fredericksburgexpocenter.com/event_planning/Fred expo Info kit package_May 2007.pdf