The Hunter Valley’s new $6 million conference and event centre is open for business.

The Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley team wowed guests at the official opening of its event centre last Friday 30 January. The new space was unveiled to guests in stages, with drinks and canapés on the pergola lawn, followed by speeches in the gala dinner-styled conference room, more speeches in the central exhibition space and a party on the outdoor lawn.

The final instalment of the event featured food stalls offering a variety of ‘Harvest Hunter’ produce and wine, as well as live music under two tepee-style marquees.

The venue, which is the largest in NSW north of Sydney,  features two conference rooms, 650 square metres of adjoining exhibition space, eight meeting rooms and the advantage of 316 onsite accommodation rooms, is the largest facility of its kind in the region.

Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley General Manager Robert Coates said, “The new Conference and Events Centre will position the Hunter Valley as a leading Australian conference and events destination. Offering guests the latest technology and a light-filled design in a state-of-the-art venue with a combined 2,000 square metres of pre-function, meeting and exhibition space coupled with a unique wine country destination. We have already received large scale group bookings for 2015 resulting in 20 percent growth in business events and many in the pipeline for 2016 – it looks set to be a very busy year for us.”

The new centre has partnered with Scene Change to ensure the seamless delivery of audio visual technology.

Scene Change co-founder Ian Whitworth said, “The technical installation is at the same level as the best of Australia’s convention centres, with high-end Barco projectors and sophisticated digital controls. Clients will get the welcoming, relaxed Hunter conference experience without having to compromise their production values.”