destination reports: turkey: Meeting facilities
Meeting facilities
Istanbul is the business hub of Turkey, and is therefore the meetings hub of the country as well.
Three meeting ‘clusters’ provide facilities tailored towards different meeting industry elements.
The Airport and Exhibition District, located close to Atatürk International Airport, offers two exhibition centres providing almost 150,000 square metres of flexible space, as well as meeting and event facilities and several hotels.
The Business and Financial District has a number of conference centres under construction and offers five-star accommodation with extensive meeting space. It is located near the headquarters of numerous international companies and in close proximity to the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
Conference Valley, the third meeting cluster, combines dozens of hotels within walking distance of three conference venues. The Istanbul Lütfi K?rdar Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC) opened in 1996 with the Habitat 2 Conference. In 2000, Rumeli Fair & Exhibition Hall came into service with the World Telecommunication Conference. The Harbiye Congress and Cultural Centre opened in time for the IMF/World Bank meeting at the end of September 2009 and offers an auditorium for 3,500 people, foyer and exhibition space of approximately 10,000 square metres and further flexible meeting rooms.
Harbiye Congress Centre, which has 12 floors and a total of 111,000 square metres of space, is designed for international congresses, company meetings, fairs and exhibitions. The main building is connected via two different entrances to Istanbul Lütfi Kirdar Convention & Exhibition Centre and Muhsin Ertugrul Theatre. The auditorium has three entrances and three foyers, as well as 24 simultaneous translation rooms and a multi-use stage with hydraulic lift. The centre offers eight meeting rooms with capacities of between 97 to 1,400 attendees in theatre style. “2008 was a very successful year for ICEC, hosting 14 fairs with 277,184 visitors as well as 30 national and international congresses with 52,500 congress delegates. In 2009 the performance was even better with 15 fairs attended by approximately 407,500 visitors and 20 national and international congresses with approximately 64,500 congress delegates,” explains Yalazan.
Also close to Conference Valley is the Cemal Re?it Rey Concert Hall, which seats 860, and the Hilton Istanbul Convention & Exhibition Centre, which provides banqueting space for 1,800 and has a total area of nearly 3,000 square metres. Other venues in Istanbul include the Halic Congress Centre, which opened its doors for the organisation of the 5th World Water Forum in March 2009, has a main auditoria for 3,100 delegates and stands on the shore of the Golden Horn, an area of great historic interest in one of the most beautiful parts of Istanbul.
