A new conference centre has opened up in Penticton, and it’s already getting some use.
The Penticton Lakeside Resort’s east ballroom, formerly the site of the casino, is now host to a newly renovated 15,000-square-foot conference hall. The hall, which effectively doubles the conference space in the hotel, has already gotten some use.
“We had a conference in house and when they heard about the space, they wanted to bring their trade show and make it a bit larger, so we were kind of forced to open up at the end of May, which was great,” said Brannigan Mosses, Lakeside Resort sales and marketing director.
“We still have a few little things that we’re putting finishing touches on.”
When the conference space opened up, Mosses said the hotel got a bit of a rush of people looking to host conferences at the space. Over the long weekend and this week, a few events were hosted at the location, including a Marianas Trench concert on June 30.
Beyond concerts, Mosses said the “versatility of the space” offers a number of different types of events, including car shows, trade shows, weddings and special events.
“The list kind of goes on and on, because we just have have this large, wide-open 15,000-square-foot space,” she said.
The South Okanagan Events Centre, Mosses said, adds up to a larger space as that of the new conference hall, as does the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre in its entirety. However, when taking into account the entirety of the hotel’s conference floor space, it does compete with the Spectra-run, city-owned spaces at the SOEC campus.
As well, Mosses said there are some potential advantages to having the new space for both players.
“Between these two spaces, we can bring in many more national conferences, that sort of thing that will allow us to offer more city-wide events.”
However, given the space is attached to a hotel, the additional conference space could give the city a run for its money at the trade and convention centre.
There, the city has considered proposals to build a hotel atop the conference hall, but none has come to fruition.
