I don't think we have ever had a thread about these centers in our region. What cities have one? I only know the 2 big Danish ones in Herning and Copenhagen, and then I think Göteborg has one too:? But other than that I haven't heard much about these. Many German cities have quite large exhibition centres, there must be others here than the few I know about.

I'll present the local one, hopefully somebody can add information for others. :)

http://www.mikaellykmadsen.dk/skyscrapercity/messecenter/logo.jpg

Messecenter Herning (http://www.messecenter.dk) consist of 3 different parts. The Exhibition Centres itself, the SAS Arena (stadium) and Kongrescenter Herning (http://www.kongrescenter.dk). In 2005 they had a total of 835.000 visitors, broken down to:

449.269 in the exhibition centre
149.119 at SAS Arena
236.426 at the congrescenter

The exhibition centre has 15 halls, varying in size from 2.000 to 14.000 m2. It has 15.000 parking spaces, and also has it's own train station, only used for special trade fair trains though. The size of the centre is 91.000 m2 for exhibition, 18.000 m2 administrative and service area with auditorium, meeting rooms, press centre, restaurants, bars and kitchen and also an outdoor display area of 400,000 m2.

Some photos, first the exhibition centre:
http://www.mikaellykmadsen.dk/skyscrapercity/messecenter/luft.jpg
(© Messecenter Herning)

SAS Arena
http://www.mikaellykmadsen.dk/skyscrapercity/messecenter/sasarena.jpg
(© Messecenter Herning)

And here the intrance to the congrescenter:
http://www.mikaellykmadsen.dk/skyscrapercity/night/2.jpg


Anyone know anything about the other ones in the region? :)

http://www.mikaellykmadsen.dk/skyscrapercity/night/2.jpg

This is one fine night shot! You've got some talent with architecture photography.

Sry for the off-topic post. :D

goddamn what a waste of land...

@mlm - nice pic!

In Copenhagen we have Bella Center and Forum

Bella Center/Copenhagen Congress Center - http://www.bellacenter.dk/english/bella+center
The permanent Bella Center meeting facilities can accommodate up to 10,000 conference attendees at the time and offers 30 conference rooms that hold up to 4,200 visitors.

Five of the conference rooms are located in the exhibition area and are therefore frequently used in connection with larger fairs and exhibits.

In case of larger events that require room for 10,000 visitors and beyond the exhibit halls are put in to use.



http://www.nfif2003.com/pB0177.jpg

http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/htm/baggrund/tema2002/historisk%20eu-topmode/images/117.jpg

http://www.iswa2006.org/images/Bella%20center.jpg

http://science.stofair.se/uploaded/image/2004/6/4/bild_till_seminars.gif


Forum - http://www.forumcopenhagen.dk/english
The largest pillar-free hall in Northern Europe provides unlimited opportunities for decoration and for organising concerts and other entertainment events. Forum has been used as the setting for product presentations, anniversary functions and general meetings as well as for all kinds of theme events, from Morten Korch and James Bond to Moulin Rouge and Gala.

Forum Concert: Chairs: 8.500 chairs/10.000 pers
Forum - Party: Chairs : 3.000 chairs/6.000 pers

Capacity: ( Exhibition area Total ) 5.000 m² net 8.000 m² gross


http://www.kulturhuse.dk/media/8418-forum_01.jpg

http://www.kulturhuse.dk/media/8418-forum_04.jpg

http://www.kulturhuse.dk/media/8418-forum_05.jpg

http://www.kulturhuse.dk/media/8418-forum_03.jpg

Hopefully bella centret will be in use for the big event we are hoping to host in 2009...Fingers crossed...


That could be so sweeeettt.... :cheers:

I'm too young to know, and I'm too lazy to check up on it, but Bella Center was once located at Bellahøj, wasn't it? I was reading Kirsten Thorup's novel Himmel og Helvede back in folkeskolen, and in it, a guy visits his mom who lives in the Bellahøj high-rise complex, and from there, it's stated that he can see Bella Centret.

Was Bellacentret what is now Grøndalscentret?

Wow...my dad actually told me the story of Grøndalscentret the other day, when we drowe past it...If i remember correctly, it used to be just a big field used for "Dyrskuer" and then it later became bellahøj centret and then Grøndalscentret...I think....Or perhaps he was talking about something else...

But here http://www.bellacenter.dk/Bella+Center/Profil/Historie/Historie_lang

it says it was located at bellahøj but not where...So, maybe thats where it was...

Copying my post from this (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=262465) thread.

Norges Varemesse
Location: Lillestrøm, suburb of Oslo
Year: 2002
Size: 52.000 sqm, where 32.000 sqm is the exhibition-halls themselves.
Access: 11 minutes by train from Oslo. 15 minutes by car. Parkingspace for 3.100 cars.
Visitors last year: 430.126

http://www.byggenytt.no/prosjekter/messe/maxi/luft.jpg

http://www.norvei-caravan.no/doc/IMG_0388.JPG

http://www.byggenytt.no/prosjekter/messe/maxi/inngang.jpg

http://info.bizkit.no/archive/00005/varemesse_sp2c5c36_5455a.jpg

http://www.messe.no/annualreport2004/images/no/forside.jpg

----

And there is also a pretty large and nice hotel connected to the centre, with 278 rooms. They have their own auditorias, with room for 1000 people in the biggest. The "elevator-music" all over the hotel is horrible though(speaking from experience).
http://www.prodat.no/loopSites/bolseth/images/2004_10/HotelArenaweb.jpg

Here's an image I took from one of the hotel rooms looking over the exhibition centre 1 1/2 month ago.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v157/northstar77/hoest/tre/P1010011.jpg

Thanx for the link Northstar, hadn't seen that thread before.

And also thanx for the info guys. :)

The largest exhibition centre in Malmö is "Malmö Mäss- och Kongresscenter", located at the foot of Turning Torso. Since Scandinavia's largest "food store" (I'm not sure what there ordinary stores are called, but I'm referring to the likes of ICA, Netto, Coop etc.) ICA MAXI was inaugurated in a large part of the exhibition centre, it now only holds a total amount of 20.000 sqm exhibition halls.

The congress hall has a capacity of some 3000 people.

http://www.malmomassan.se/bilder/MM_vagbeskr0503.gif

http://www.skanemassan.se/bilder/entre_MM_72.jpg

http://www.goteborg.socialdemokraterna.se/bilder/kongress/malmomassan.gif

http://www.malmomassan.se/bilder/transport/oresundskarta_vit.gif

The latest large event held there was the swedish Socialdemocrats' annual party-congress last autumn.

imho, this is the largest in Riga (Latvia; they say - even in Baltics, i'm not sure about that) -> http://www.rigaexpo.lv/re2005/EN/Index.php?m=1&s=1

[..indoor space of 17 200 m2. The parking area is intended for parking 1,200 motor vehicles.]

In Lithuania largest on is in Vilnius:

LITEXPO complex consists of 5 exhibition halls, total exhibiting area of which amounts to 16.6 thous. sq. m, and external grounds that cover 14.3 thous. sq. m. All in all, total exhibiting area reaches 30.9 thous. sq. m. Currently LITEXPO is the largest exhibition centre in the Baltic States by the number of events it organizes and the income index, as well as by the exposition area supplied with up-to-date equipment.

+ now they are building new exhibition halls, after they are build LITEXPO will be one of largest and most modern exhibition center around S&B (at least they say so :D). Anyway i can't find info about new halls (how much new space will be added) ;)

^^ Geex you know that outdoor exhibition area doesn't count. So technically it is 16.6 against 17.2.

From time to time there are announced grand plans for construction of large, new exhibition centres in Riga... but no real move. The one mentioned by @vanniken is the largest so far.
Most likely Kipsala Exhibition centre will move elsewhere in coming years - the land in Kipsala is too expensive to be used in this way (no possibilities for extension too) and transportation infrastructure is not too good.
Btw across Zunda channel in this homepage you see the site of future Akropolis highrises - if those would be built.

Here are pics of the Helsinki Exhibition Centre, where they have held many large events like E.U. conferences etc.

http://www.finnexpo.fi/Table_pict/Info_txt/id26/Yleiskuva.jpg

http://verkkolehti.peda.net/abc-it/img/kangasalanattuki/muokattu.jpg

http://www.hannulat.net/sakari/kuvia/Helsinki/kuvat/118.jpg

http://www.finnexpo.fi/Table_pict/Info_txt/id29/talvipuut.jpg

http://www.finnexpo.fi/Table_pict/Exh_info_txt/id6608/Klubi_5.gif

http://www.finnexpo.fi/Table_pict/Exh_info_txt/id6608/Hotelli_1.gif

Stockholmsmässan, Stockholm International Fairs

Facts
Total ground area 292 000 sq.m Total floor areaa 110 000 sq.m Total exhibition area, indoors 56 500 sq.m Entrance hall 4 500 sq.m Parking 4 000 spaces

Halls
sq.m Lenght x width Height
Hall A 19 000 sq.m 266 x 71m 7,6 - 18m
Hall B 11 400 sq.m 208 x 59m 5 - 10m
Hall C 23 500 sq.m 272 x 86m 4,5 - 7,2m

Note: different heights
Victoriahallen (total) 2 600 sq.m
Lower level 2 050 sq.m 41 x 50m 4,3 - 6,9m
Upper level 550 sq.m 3m

Plus a highrise :)

http://www.stockholmsmassan.se/

Just diggin' up this old thread, since Messecenter Herning will once again expand. A new hall, which will be the 16th will open in november 2008. It will once again be larger than any of the others, with 16.000 m2.

The new hall will be build so it's pretty easy to rebuild it into an arena with 12.000 seats later, but it wil start out as a "normal" hall.

Next stage of things at Messecenter Herning could incluce a 4 or 5 star hotel, a casino, a golf course and a lot of other things. No time horizon on these yet though.

In that case, I'm also going to do an update. The Norges Varemesse in Lillestrøm is expanding. The extention will bring 11.750 new sqm, which brings the whole up to 64.000 sqm (exhibiton area 38.000). This extention will make the facade 0,7 kilometers long! The completion is expected in 2009.

http://www.stalguiden.com/images/Varemesse_nybygg.jpg

Then I might as wel add that Stockohlm's secondary exhibition center, SollentunaMässan, is relocating and re-naming itself KistaMässan (that 140m hotel in Kista is part of those plans). SollentunaMässan used to be a seperate entity for many years (from StockholmsMässan) but got into financial difficulties maybe 5ish years back and then got bought out by StockholmsMässan.

@IceCheese - lol, you beat me with the additional update. When I started wrting mine your's wasn't there.

Svenska Mässan is the oldest expo centre in Sweden. In total they have 148.000 m2, of which 41 000 m2 is exhibition halls. In the complex is also a congress hall, Gothia Towers Hotel, Word Trade Center.

Adjacent is the hockey arena Scandinavium. The arena is not used for fairs but bigger sports events benefits from the various premises in the expo center for VIP, media etc.

Svenska Mässan is also a part of Evenemangsstråket, the strip of event venues just a few blocks of the city centre. Ullevi, Valhallabadet, Liseberg, Liseberghallen, Universeum Science Centre, The World Heritage Museum for instance.

The main selling point for the fair is that it's so centrally located in the city. Also it has all possible premises in the same complex, even the hotel. The EU summit in 2001 was held at Svenska Mässan. I think Göteborg is a good location for fairs since visitors from southern Sweden can go here over day by car. Stockholm is a little too far away for much of southern Sweden.

The biggest annual fairs are the book fair, the horse fair and the boat fair.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2356/1863891173_13bcac84af_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2230/1865063965_fb21ef68c6_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2113/1864606706_8220ee4676_o.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/1863783147_5182d392b0_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2354/1864608456_2dff251841_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2116/1864740977_d46edea087_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/1865567948_72ce3a2d65_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2053/1864661320_dccd395623_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/462498129_7fb845c6f6_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/1865567948_72ce3a2d65_o.jpg

Lol, you just had to go there for the Justin-consert!

Lol, you just had to go there for the Justin-consert!

No I promise! It's not my picture! I have only been there on Joe Cocker, Ac/Dc and Ulf Lundell. Many years ago!

One more in Denmark. "Fredericia Messecenter" aka "Dronning Margrethe Hallen"

The Fredericia Exhibition Centre features a large 16,000 m2 hall (the largest in Denmark), 3 smaller 4,000 m2 halls, a 2,000 m2 main building, and a 3,000 m2 conference centre.

Link: http://www.dmh.dk/ContentId/514/Language/2057/Default.aspx

Vikingskipet in Hamar is been used a a Exhibition Centre as well as a sport stadium. The hall is 250m long and 110m wide. The floor area is on 26.000 m², but the entire building has a volum on 350.000m³.

http://www.oslopinclub.org/images/vikingskipet.jpg

more from Helsinki's exh. centre:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6708/1135221553643lg8.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3407/hslg20070326154335messugr9.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2517/helsinkifaircentervh0.jpg