Exclusive by James Wilkinson

The extension of Melbourne’s Crown Conference Centre is set to open by the end of 2009, just prior to the highly anticipated completion of the new Crown Metropol hotel.

The Crown Conference Centre extension

Crown Promenade Hotel general manager Greg Moore exclusively told SpiceNews the expanded centre has been attracting significant attention of late and the new wing is set to open before the start of 2010.

“We would like to get the extension of the Crown Conference Centre open and operating by December 2009,” he said.

Moore said the extension to the Centre – next to Crown Promenade Hotel – caters for conferences of over 800 delegates with the option of utilising up to 19 concurrent rooms on the same floor.

He said a choice of two plenary rooms offers a suite of flexibility – the Crown Conference Hall is a large pillar-less space featuring operable walls with a seating capacity of 840 delegates theatre style, whilst the Promenade Room seats 600 delegates theatre-style.

When the Crown Metropol hotel is completed in early 2010, the three Crown hotels on the Whiteman Street-site will be able to host delegates in up to 1600 over a range of room sizes, from studios to villas.

“I can’t think of many other places in Australia which have the room product, combined with the conferencing,” Moore said.

“The three hotel product in this precinct, coupled with the air capacity to drive the big conferences, is absolutely sensational,” he said.

Melbourne is set to benefit from additional air capacity in the coming months, with Tiger Airways launching Sydney flights in July; V Australia launching Los Angeles flights in September; and Qatar Airways launching direct Doha flights in December.

A notable addition with the extension is a designated exhibition space, which Moore said will be a key selling tool going forward.

“Conferences are now more and more becoming dependant on sponsorship, we think the exhibition space combined with the conferencing is going to be absolutely fantastic,” he said.

For conference and event bookings, call 03 9292 6968.