Sydney Exhibition Centre @ Glebe Island ready to host first events in February

Work on the new Sydney Exhibition Centre @ Glebe Island (SCEC@GI), the interim facility which will house exhibitions in Sydney industry for the next three years, are nearly complete.

Offering a temporary venue for the $100 million per annum Sydney exhibitions industry while the news ICC Exhibition venue is constructed at Sydney's Darling Harbour, the new venue will open its doors on Saturday 15th February for its first event - Reed Gift Fairs Sydney.

Running to Wednesday 19th February, the exhibition is expected to attract 30,000 visitors.

SEC@G General Manager Malu Barrios has been a regular visitor to the site and has watched its transformation into exhibition space of up to 25,000 metre2.

She explained "we are all looking forward to hosting the first exhibition in February and our commissioning event, held last Friday, allowed us to trial all our services.

"This was a good opportunity to test the venue operations, transport, logistics and catering ahead of the first major exhibition and we were pleased with the outcomes.

"We asked visitors to rate their experience and, of those surveyed, 83% said it was excellent or good so we were pleased with those results.

"SEC@GI is a unique venue with amazing harbour views and will certainly provide exhibition visitors with a great experience."

Exhibition & Event Association of Australasia Chief Executive Joyce DiMascio said the completion of the building on-time and ready for the start of the 2014 exhibition season was a big achievement.

"The six-month construction timetable was very tight and we are pleased that Sydney's biggest trade and consumer shows will have a new home during the rebuilding of facilities at Darling Harbour.

"The trade and consumer exhibitions that will be held at Sydney Exhibition Centre @ Glebe Island are vital to the economy of Sydney, NSW and Australia and we are pleased that business can still be done at these important events."

Regular scheduled special event ferries will transport visitors from Darling Harbour Convention Wharf to SEC@GI and buses will also run from Central Station. The new facility also has a taxi rank and limited onsite car parking. Special event transport schedules will be tailored for each show with details available at the event website at the time of ticketing or registration.

Darling Harbour will remain an active and vibrant precinct during the three-year development, with retail, dining and leisure activities and hotel accommodation for visitors to SEC@GI.

http://www.sydneyexhibitioncentre.com.au/