Business View Magazine | July 2019

179 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 THE CHARLESTON COL I SEUM & CONVENT ION CENTER “When that was completed, the old facility was converted more into convention space. The next event that happened that was rather significant was in 2000. We had a recreational ice rink in the building and we discontinued the use of that. It was contiguous to our exhibit spaces and we incorporated that into our exhibit hall.” Those improvements were augmented by the recent, $100 million renovation and expansion project, which was completed last October. “It’s really going to open up just a whole different market for us, because it is a fabulous convention center that is on par with facilities in major markets” says Robertson. What was for years known as the Charleston Civic Center also underwent a name change with the completion of the renovation and expansion project, becoming the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to reflect its new identity. Today, its three components are all under one roof: a 13,000-seat arena, a 738- seat performing arts theater, and an exhibit hall with 51,000 square feet of unobstructed floor space, along with 31 meeting rooms and a 25,000 square-foot ballroom. “We have vast expanses of public areas, lots of transparency, light, windows, great views of the river, and common areas for collaboration,” boasts Robertson. Another huge asset is the advanced technology that is etched into the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center’s DNA. “Technology is very important in the meeting business now,” says Robertson. “When we started design and construction for our new facility, the thing we said is, ‘We can have a cardboard box and it can have adequate technology, and we can make it work and we can sell it. But if we don’t have technology, we can have a Taj Mahal, but we’ve wasted our money.’ So, we really invested in technology in the facility. We have the capacity to go from 1 Gigabyte and burst it to 10 Gigabytes. We have licenses that allow us to accommodate 7,500 unique individual users, simultaneously, and we can expand that is happy to work with the newly enhanced Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to Make It Better To Be There. www.centerplate.com