-By Rick Fawell

The conference center hotel is a bridge between business and education that calls for a unique approach to leisure design. Over the past two decades, few new hotels and conference centers were built, so some existing properties became outdated. Recently, there has been an influx of investment in hospitality, as REITs and developers respond to growing demand for hotel/conference facilities, leading to a building boom in this area.

Typically, conference center hotels address a variety of needs as part of mixed-use development projects. Many universities are creating hotel/conference centers that support educational needs and provide revenue streams, especially those with large business and medical schools. For example, the Allen Center at Northwestern University is used for university/corporate conferences and hosts the executive MBA program for the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. And the Marriott Kingsgate Conference Hotel is located on the University of Cincinnati campus and features seven conference rooms, two amphitheaters, nine breakout rooms and a grand ballroom.

Suburban municipalities also are supporting new hotel/conference centers that bring business to their communities and provide an alternative to the city center for large metropolitan areas and expanding exurbia. The Westin North Shore Hotel and Conference Center in Wheeling, Ill., and Westin Yorktown in Lombard, Ill., for example, are two municipality driven conference centers recently completed by VOA. One is private and one publicly funded and both are outfitted with a variety of ballrooms and meeting rooms, as well as restaurants by well-known Chicago chefs. In addition to serving the local business community, these facilities support family and community events, such as weddings, fundraisers, and corporate holiday parties.

Whether the result of private investment or public/private partnership, the keys to success are a good feasibility study, a strong design team, financial backing and a commitment from the community to support the project. The International Association of Conference Centers, which boasts more than 300 members worldwide, has created a list of guidelines that define what a high-quality conference center must include, which IACC calls Complete Meeting Planning (CMP). In a nutshell, CMP conference centers provide what amounts to a turnkey conferencing experience for meeting planners. IACC certification ensures that a conference center complies with the organization's guidelines, which in turn ensures meeting planners one-stop shopping for everything from hotel rooms to AV to food and beverage service to business centers. Kingsgate and the Allen Center, both IACC certified, must assign a designated conference planner to each conference group and ensure that rooms are outfitted with everything from ergonomically designed chairs and controllable lighting to continuous refreshment service outside the meeting rooms.

In terms of operation, conference hotels are a lot like theaters. The secret is to design a facility that marries back-of-the-house efficiency with an exceptional, front-of-the-house experience. Along with extraordinary service and fabulous food, attention to detail in conference rooms plays a big part in making the experience successful. Acoustics are key, as is access to and availability of a comprehensive mix of AV equipment with seamless system design. At the Westin North Shore and Westin Lombard hotels, meeting rooms are treated acoustically to avoid sound bleed. Strategically placed speakers throughout meeting rooms support a wide spectrum of acoustical performance from simple lectures to live bands and motivational events.Meeting rooms are shaped and configured to optimize sight lines for all attendees. Chicago's Hotel Sax conference center includes a media wall in the entry area that can be customized for each group's meeting, as well as surround sound, HDTV, and MP3 player capability in each meeting room.

As anyone who has spent a day at a conference will attest, ergonomics also matter. The audience already has sat on a plane, hauled luggage, and probably slept in a hotel bed, so seating that provides comfort for eight hours at a stretch is an important consideration. Lighting is also crucial and should be variable enough to support a wide variety of uses of meeting rooms. Guestrooms in the adjacent hotel are designed as both bedroom and office, and business centers round out the amenities typically included. Because it is close to O'Hare airport in Chicago, the Intercontinental Hotel Conference Center in Rosemont includes a designated area where guests can use a free Wi-Fi to check flights and print airline tickets.

Properly executed, hotel conference centers can be a source of revenue for universities and municipalities, as well as an attractive opportunity for hotel operators looking for locations that will generate room nights. Kingsgate Conference Center, originally built for the University of Cincinnati, has become a popular destination for corporate meetings, weddings, and special events, adding revenue for both the university and Marriott, which operates the hotel.Such relationships result in splendid environments for corporate training and special events, as well as win-win scenarios for municipalities, universities, and hoteliers.

Rick Fawell, AIA, NCARB, a principal at VOA Associates in Chicago, has more than 27 years of architecture and planning experience. His practice includes hospitality, higher education, and government projects, in the United States and abroad.