Seven years of excellence

Out of the more than 1200 events the Valencia Conference Centre has hosted during these first 7 years, it would be difficult to find two with the same
organizational requirements.

That is why everything in the Conference Centre, from the very architectural concept to its business culture, is orientated towards satisfying a very diverse market. Even before the project was devised it was clear that, as Mr. Jose Salinas stated in the 25th edition of the Valencian Magazine of Regional Studies in 1998, the Conference Centre should aim to cover the demand resulting from a spectacular increase throughout the world in these
type of events, that until then only the Palau de la Musica (Auditorium) could attend to, even though it was not designed for them. Since then, the Conference Centre has gone through two main phases. The objective of the first phase was to start developing activities and consolidate its program
to gain a position in the international market.

This phase demanded hard work but was credited with the Best Conference Centre in Spain Award, conferred by the Spanish Federation of Professional Congress Organizers. During the second phase efforts were geared towards achieving self financing and ensuring all activities could financed without external help. Currently, the services offered by the Conference Centre are highly praised by organizers of events worldwide whose
capacity or stringent quality standards requirements demand a highly prepared and adaptable organization capable of hosting any event from a conference meeting to a trade fair. In fact, thanks to the high number of satisfied organizers and delegates attending the conferences and events praising the integration and quality of the Conference Centre´s services it has quickly acquired a reputation as one of the major meeting and conference centres in Europe.

During these years, the Conference Centre has dealt with more than 800.000 visitors, 50% of whom were foreigners or from other Spanish regions and whose economic impact, according to the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE), amounts to some 288 million euros, partially due to the fact that, according to the same source, the average spending rate of visitors to the Conference Centre is up to three times higher than the leisure holiday tourist.

The versatility of the Valencia Conference Centre is easily portrayed by looking at the type of events the Centre has hosted since its opening. They have included commercial launches and scientific innovations, commercial advertisements, mass concerts or the staging of shows or plays by widely known performers such as the Argentinean Les Luthiers, as well as hosting castings such as the nationally famous Spanish TV version of “Pop Idol” and of course, conferences, symposiums, meetings, business conventions and major congresses .

One outstanding event was the Women´s World Forum against Violence held in 2000, which brought together more than 1000 women from 100 countries. The following year, 2001, the Conference Centre hosted the African Development Bank´s annual meeting, in which 1500 delegates debated over Africa´s development needs and potential and ways to combat poverty. 2002 was the year of the International Conference of Ministers
and Secretaries of State on Social Security of Europe and Latin America, an event that brought the world´s attention to the Valencia Conference Centre under the academic supervision of the Inter-American Center for Social Security Studies (CIESS). New initiatives that have had a widespread social repercussion have taken place at the Conference Centre, as was the case with the International Women and Disability Congress, held in 2003, coinciding with the European Year of People with Disabilities, in which they dealt with different aspects related to the aim of improving the quality of life of disabled women. Thanks to, among other things, the absolute absence of architectural barriers, more than a 1000 people were able to comfortably attend the congress. The major event in 2004 was the II International Congress of Managerial Executives (CEDE) in which internationally renowned financial personages analyzed the impact of the EU enlargement from a business, social and ethical perspective.