The 350,000-square-foot Palm Beach County Convention Center opened in January in West Palm Beach, Fla., three miles from Palm Beach International Airport. Among the meeting space: the 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 25,000-square-foot ballroom, and 23,000 square feet of flexible breakout space, divisible into 23 rooms. Wireless Internet connections and fiber-optic and CAT6 cabling are available throughout the facility. For keeping attendees abreast of convention center happenings, LCD and plasma screens display schedules.
www.palmbeachfl.com

The Gaylord Texas Resort & Convention Center was scheduled at press time to open its doors on April 4 in Grapevine, Texas. The 1,511-room resort features a 400,000-square-foot convention center that can accommodate up to 5,000 attendees. The largest ballroom is 50,000 square feet in area, and there is an 18,000-square-foot exhibit hall.
www.gaylordtexan.com

The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., will break ground in mid-April on a new events center, Broadmoor Hall. The 60,000-square-foot facility will accommodate 350 8-foot-by-10-foot booths. It will have 25-foot clear-span ceilings and two separate event-lighting systems. Every 10 feet of floor space will hold power compartments with computer and telecommunications capabilities, along with lines for microphones, intercom, CATV, and video. The hall will offer four breakouts separated with STC55 sound walls. Completion is expected in mid-October 2005. www.broadmoor.com

The Omni San Diego Hotel will open April 4 across the street from the San Diego Convention Center with more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space equipped with T-1 Internet access. The hotel, which will add 500 new guest rooms to the city, will be linked by pedestrian bridge to Petco Park, the new San Diego Padres ballpark. With the recent expansion of the 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt, and the opening by 2006 of a 1,100-room Hilton headquarters hotel, more than 10,000 rooms will be available in the city.
www.omnihotels.com