With attendees reluctant to travel by air, planners may be on the lookout for drive-to meeting venues that serve several cities. A new option in northeast Ohio, midway between Cleveland, Akron, and Pittsburgh, is the Eastwood Event Centre, recently opened in Niles. The city, just north of Youngstown, has a place in history as the birthplace of William McKinley.
The new conference facility is almost 30,000 square feet overall, with 15,000 square feet of meeting space that can be configured as one large ballroom or as m
any as six smaller rooms. There are also two large prefunction areas as well as catering facilities. The full ballroom can host up to 900 people for a sit-down dinner once social-distancing rules can be relaxed.
The conference center offers interior access to a retail concourse of 200 shops at the Eastwood Mall Complex as well as a 103-unit Residence Inn by Marriott. Youngstown State University is a 10-minute drive away.
Eastwood Event Centre is run by Columbus Hospitality Management, which also operates the Grand Event Center in the Columbus area and two other Ohio convention centers, among other properties.
