Metro Atlanta
DiscoverAtlanta.com; @DiscoverATL—The Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), the world’s largest LEED-certified convention center in downtown Atlanta, boasts 1.5 million square feet of exhibit space. GWCC’s campus recently opened Andrew Young International Mall & Terminal, a pedestrian walkway linking Centennial Olympic Park to the new 976-room Signia by Hilton Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center. Signia by Hilton features 106,972 square feet of event space across 43 meeting rooms. Its largest space, a 37,080-square-foot ballroom, can host 4,600 guests. The hotel also has a 20,000-square-foot event lawn accommodating 1,400 people for receptions. Also downtown is the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart, which contains 150 breakout rooms, 800,000 square feet of exhibit space, and 61,500 square feet of meeting space.
Downtown Atlanta’s Southern Exchange Ballrooms occupy the former Davison’s department store, which opened in 1927. Maintaining much of its original, vintage interior elements, the venue contains 110,000 square feet of function space, including an 18,000-square-foot ballroom seating 850 guests and a flexible conference center with a capacity of 1,400 for receptions. Other unique venues include Fox Theatre Atlanta, boasting a 4,665-seat auditorium and other event space, and Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame, which accommodates up to 800 people.
Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame was updated just in time for the 2024 football season with new GAME ON! AI experiences, allowing visitors to be the stars in their own college football stories. Guests simply step up to a fan scan kiosk, select their individual preferences, and watch themselves in action on the screen. The Super Fan experience, for example, puts them in the colors and in the stands of their favorite college football team. The Field JumboTron experience plays a video of guests starring as the latest recruit for their favorite college football team, along with a personalized voice-over. Other updates include new exhibits celebrating U.S. Military academies and College Football Hall of Fame members who served in the U.S. Military, along with experiences putting guests in the cockpit of a plane or helicopter during a stadium fly-over; exhibits featuring college football’s biggest rivalries; a high-intensity walk-in tunnel; displays chronicling a decade in Atlanta; and a reimagined retail experience in the Team Store.
In addition to the new Signia by Hilton, other major convention hotels in downtown Atlanta include the 1,260-room Hyatt Regency Atlanta, featuring 180,000 square feet of event area; the 1,663-room Atlanta Marriott Marquis, with more than 162,526 square feet of event space; and the 1,067-room Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park, featuring 120,000 square feet of event space.
“These are exciting times for Atlanta,” says Kristin Delahunt, vice president of destination services for Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB). “In the next three years, downtown Atlanta is expected to invest in new projects adding a mix of hotels, commercial space, and new retail.”
