What is a convention center?

France is a lead­ing des­tin­a­tion for leis­ure and busi­ness tour­ism. Sev­er­al mil­lion vis­it­ors flock here every year to dis­cov­er the rich­ness and beauty of our ter­rit­ory. To meet the grow­ing demand for busi­ness events, the major French des­tin­a­tions have struc­tured them­selves around multi-pur­pose, high-capa­city facil­it­ies known as conven­tion cen­ters or con­ven­tion and exhib­i­tion cen­ters. A con­ven­tion cen­ter is there­fore a large build­ing, com­posed of mod­u­lar spaces, and close to all the facil­it­ies needed to organ­ize numer­ous events:

• adap­ted park­ing spaces ;
• ref­er­enced caterers;
• hotel rooms in the imme­di­ate vicinity;
• tour­ist office…

Some­times called con­ven­tion cen­ters, con­ven­tion cen­ters are recog­nized for their event know-how. They can host large-scale meetings:

• con­gress ;
• con­ven­tions ;
• con­fer­ences ;
• trade shows ;
• sem­inars ;
• gala even­ings…

And also polit­ic­al events, shows, and oth­er artist­ic events mobil­iz­ing a large num­ber of participants.
The recep­tion halls and their asso­ci­ated ser­vices (tech­nic­al know-how, logist­ics, cater­ing, audi­ovisu­al, etc.) are ren­ted by con­fer­ence organ­izers, event agen­cies, com­pan­ies, asso­ci­ations, fed­er­a­tions and inter­na­tion­al organizations.
A con­ven­tion cen­ter like the CID Deau­ville is there­fore a large-scale site, a place of inter­na­tion­al stature and above all a place con­du­cive to pro­fes­sion­al exchanges.

Dis­cov­er the Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Center

Why choose a convention center for your event?

• An ideal infra­struc­ture for host­ing excep­tion­al events: world meet­ings, con­ven­tions, trade shows, con­fer­ences, gala even­ings, exhib­i­tions, shows, concerts…
• Large rooms at your dis­pos­al: amphi­theat­er, aud­it­or­i­ums, con­fer­ence rooms, exhib­i­tion halls, VIP lounges, meet­ing rooms, exhib­i­tion halls…
• Sim­pli­fied organ­iz­a­tion for qual­ity pro­fes­sion­al events: a team of pro­fes­sion­als over­sees the smooth run­ning of busi­ness events from A to Z
• A stra­tegic loc­a­tion: con­ven­tion cen­ters are loc­ated in major French cit­ies. They are gen­er­ally well served, eas­ily and quickly access­ible from air­ports, train sta­tions, highways…
• They are places of inter­na­tion­al stature for an increased vis­ib­il­ity of the event.

What are the missions of a convention center ?

The con­ven­tion cen­ter is the priv­ileged part­ner for the hold­ing of a large-scale event. It orches­trates the actions of all the stake­hold­ers involved at each stage of the cre­ation of the busi­ness event. This “temple of con­gresses” offers event organ­izers a com­plete range of solu­tions and ser­vices. The spe­cif­ic pro­fes­sions rep­res­en­ted in the con­ven­tion cen­ter teams are Event mar­ket­ing, pro­ject man­ager, stage man­ager, elec­tri­cian, hand­ler, fire and safety officer, cater­ing man­ager, qual­ity and CSR man­ager, recep­tion staff…

Dis­cov­er the event team of the Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Center

How to choose a convention center?

For events gath­er­ing many par­ti­cipants, with a media impact and notori­ety, the organ­izer will choose a des­tin­a­tion includ­ing the con­ven­tion cen­ter, accom­mod­a­tion, cater­ing, team build­ing…

Dis­cov­er the main busi­ness des­tin­a­tions in France with Atout France

Choos­ing the right place to organ­ize a busi­ness event means first of all mak­ing sure that the con­ven­tion cen­ter or exhib­i­tion cen­ter is eas­ily access­ible and ideally served accord­ing to the geo­graph­ic­al ori­gin of the par­ti­cipants. If the par­ti­cipants arrive mostly via the air­port or the bus sta­tion, it will also be essen­tial to think about the ser­vice to the hotels and the recep­tion ven­ue. For a region­al event, the organ­izers will focus on the appro­pri­ate park­ing spaces around the con­ven­tion center.
When an event takes place over sev­er­al days, it is advis­able to check the hotel capa­city and the hotel rooms in the imme­di­ate vicin­ity of the con­ven­tion center.
It is rel­ev­ant to organ­ize the event in an attract­ive place, in a tour­ist area or in a pleas­ant set­ting: it allows par­ti­cipants to get away from their usu­al work envir­on­ment, to break with the daily routine. Choose a place that is con­du­cive to pro­ductiv­ity and relax­a­tion in order to cap­ture the atten­tion of par­ti­cipants and to seduce them: the choice of an emblem­at­ic place increases the par­ti­cip­a­tion rate.

Convention centers committed to sustainable development and participant safety

To go fur­ther, ask con­ven­tion cen­ters about their com­mit­ment to eco-respons­ible events: actions must be taken to lim­it the eco­lo­gic­al foot­print of your event. The cer­ti­fic­a­tions obtained by con­ven­tion cen­ters allow you to meas­ure the level of com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able development.

Dis­cov­er the eco-respons­ible event at CID Deauville

Con­ven­tion cen­ters are con­stantly on the lookout for changes in the event industry. They adapt their know-how and equip­ment to new uses, such as hybrid events. This mix of face-to-face and remote events emerged in response to the Cov­id-19 health crisis and the restric­tion on the num­ber of people attend­ing gath­er­ings. Since then, it has become a per­man­ent fix­ture in the events land­scape and allows event organ­izers to gath­er ever more par­ti­cipants, while bene­fit­ing from the inter­na­tion­al health accred­it­a­tion earned by con­ven­tion cen­ters: the vari­ety of audi­ovisu­al equip­ment made avail­able (live broad­casts and pro­jec­tions, TV sets, inter­con­nec­ted spaces, etc.) makes it pos­sible to send the same level and qual­ity of inform­a­tion to all con­ven­tion attendees, wheth­er they are in per­son or remotely.

The Centre International de Deauville is an exceptional venue in Normandy

When hold­ing a con­fer­ence or organ­iz­ing a busi­ness sem­in­ar, choos­ing a ven­ue of inter­na­tion­al stature such as the Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Cen­ter means bene­fit­ing from the image of excel­lence and the repu­ta­tion of the sea­side resort of Deau­ville. The CID, Deau­ville Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, has hos­ted many world polit­ic­al sum­mits and is the co-organ­izer of the Deau­ville Amer­ic­an Film Fest­iv­al. This myth­ic­al place seduces con­gress­men and leaves them with a mem­or­able souven­ir, it is per­fect for your congresses!