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We have prepared this Event Planning Guide to provide you with information to help make your event a success, whether you are booking a convention, trade show, meeting, consumer show, concert, dance, sporting event or any other kind of special activity.
Our experienced staff will provide additional information and guidance throughout the planning stages, from your initial consultation to the successful culmination of your event. An Event Manager will be assigned to your event. We encourage you to communicate with your Event Manager directly and as often as necessary. Keeping the doors of communication open is a major step toward ensuring the success of your show.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center (KBHCCD) (formerly Dallas Convention Center) is a convention center in the Convention Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas. The Convention Center additions were designed by Larry Oltmanns, who was a Design Partner with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill at the time. On February 9, 2022, the Dallas City Council voted to take steps toward demolishing the convention center and replacing it with a new one. Located in the heart of downtown Dallas, the KBHCCD has been and continues to be a fixture in the Dallas skyline offering 1 million square feet of exhibit space, three ballrooms, 88 meeting rooms, 1,750-seat theater, and a 9,816-seat arena. The award-winning facility is connected to a 1,001-room hotel via skybridge and is adjacent to two Vertiport landing pads.
In 2018 Dallas jumped two spots to number five in the nation for meetings and conventions, rated by Cvent, the largest online event management software company, making it the only Texas city in the Top 10. Come see why "Dallas Delivers!"
The facility’s ample pre-function space, more than 32,000 square feet, is well suited to registration, retail or dining needs. The building is served by 29 covered loading docks, four (4) drive-in doors, mechanical elevators and 1,000 indoor parking spaces. It is connected with the Dallas, TX Rail Terminal that runs the Dallas, TX Line from Philadelphia to Dallas, TX. Jitneys, buses and taxis queue at the front of the building to provide service to other points within the city. A pedestrian airbridge links the Convention Center to the adjoining Sheraton Hotel. Located within a few hours drive of nearly one third of the nation’s population and 20 percent of the country’s business addresses, the convention center is easily accessible for convention, trade show and meeting attendees.
The Dallas Memorial Auditorium was originally constructed in 1957 near the intersection of Canton and Akard Streets. While the auditorium still hosts many smaller events, its antiquated facilities and technology, along with the fact that it is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, have kept it less busy than in the pastIn 1973, the center was expanded and renamed the Dallas Convention Center; the expansion was designed by local architects Omniplan. The center was expanded again in 1984 and once more in 1994
when Dallas Area Rapid Transit constructed the Convention Center Station underneath the west-wing of the facility, connecting it to the Red and Blue light rail lines. The most-recent addition to the facility was completed in 2002. The complex was renamed in honor of former US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2013
The convention center offers a parking garage and three surface parking lots (Lots C and E). Public transportation is available with Amtrak and the Trinity Railway Express serving the Dallas Union Station to the northeast of the Convention Center