Minneapolis Convention Center

I was at the Convention Center in November for the annual NCTE Conference. It’s a HUGE building with a ground level, upper, and TWO lower floors, and a gaggle of various-​sized rooms and auditoriums. The staff seemed to have all of the setup/​technology prepared with the exception of one presentation I saw.
It’s hooked up to the Skyway (which I found out [on the last day, of course] actually goes TO the Marquette Hotel), but central enough downtown to walk to many eateries.
The latter is nice because, while theres a smallish restaurant inside, I wasn’t really feeling the food choices. Dunn Brothers Coffee is an awesome mainstay in the Convention Center and took a nice chunk of my food and bevy budget.
Bathrooms were clean. I wish there were more water fountains sprinkled throughout the place. Temperature control was also spot-​on; it was freeeeezing outside and I had no need to layer indoors.
My favorite part aside from Dunn Bros? RECYCLING. Minnesota has their ish down like a well-​oiled machine. My Recycling-​Nazi a$$ still hesitated each time, though, to try and ensure I was correctly filing by category. A colleague of mine wasn’t so thrilled; she said the sorting system was way too complicated, so she was just throwing stuff away. (Gahhhh!!!)
STILL AWESOME though.
Well done, Minneapolis… well done.

The 4 day annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (insect science!) was held in this convention center this year. The place is huge and very aesthetically pleasing. The rooms were equipped with everything needed for all the talks that were held, and it had several food and beverage options available for the attendees of the meeting. It also had a little souvenir store that was very convenient. All the rooms and bathrooms were always super clean despite the fact that nearly 7,000 people attend this meeting each year. Would definitely recommend this place for large business meetings and conferences.

I have attended the Wizard World Minneapolis Comic Con both years and have been very happy with my experience.
I used the center’s parking ramp this year and it is so easy and convenient. I usually end up spending $ 10 on parking.
I have no complaints as of yet!

I am impressed with how clean this place is. So big too.
I love that it’s connected to the skyway. It rained a ton (and even snowed) while I was here so the skyway connection came in handy a lot.
So many bathrooms and water fountains placed that you don’t have to wait in line for those except for when big groups come out of the meeting rooms/​auditoriums then there’s a line in the bathrooms but there’s always so many stalls so you can be in and out in 5 minutes.
Love that there’s a coffee place and craft bar and lounge.
Plenty of places to sit and plenty of outlets to charge your phone.
I guess my only complaint would be that the security advised me to keep my purse close by because sometimes homeless people might try to snatch purses and run away. That’s a little scary since the conference center is open to the public to wander.

Not a bad convention center. It’s a 13 minute walk from the light rail, and adjacent to several hotels. There are several entrances around the building so that you can enter closest to where you need to be.
The food options were really lacking. Outside the exhibit hall, there was one place to get food, and one day it closed for lunch before 1:00 pm. They had some pretty good salads, sandwiches, fries, and turkey burgers, though at a ridiculous cost.
The exhibit hall space was okay and the meeting rooms were easy enough to find and navigate. Large bathrooms and fine enough as far as convention centers go.

Pretty awesome and large convention center hosting the FAN FEST for the Baseball All Star Game! This is a very nice place, but man was it cold in there! Pumping the air! But nice lay out, beautiful ceilings, and the fan fest was presented well! Great work!

Well, I used to religiously travel the country doing conventions so convention centers are a dime a dozen in my life experiences; this one is nothing special. Large rooms, bad ventilation, decently clean bathrooms, small food corners with nothing but fried foods and candy that is overpriced and dull colors. The location is in the heart of MPLS so you’ll want to follow the helpful lit signs to find your way through the one-​ways and get to parking (which is high priced as most metro cities are) and then walk your way through stairs, sky ways and escalators to get to the actual center — where you pray they have put up signs to direct you as there is normally 4 exhibits going on at once.
Never seen rats, bugs, dust or crime and really it is just an open space for conventions — what more do you need? I can tell you that if you’re a vendor at an event that they will require you pay THEIR wireless fees (which are hellacious) rather than use your wifi or mobile hot spots — they block the services out.

As a convention center goes, this one is pretty nice. But as for the food… there is definitely room for improvement. Not only is the food OUTRAGEOUSLY overpriced, but it’s not even particularly good. I got a BLT sandwich and it was okay, but I’ve had WAY better and for the price the sandwich should have been huge. $ 5.00 for a sandwich and then another $ 3.50 for the tiniest drink EVER? Save your money and eat before hand or choose somewhere else.
The center itself is very nice and was very clean. No complaints there! :)

The Convention Center was average. The staff was friendly and helpful. Like many others have said, it is extremely lacking in food options, especially if you have a restrictive diet. They had a single gluten free baked good item. I would suggest taking your own food or walking ~3 blocks over to Nicollet Ave.

As convention centres go, this one is pretty good. It is quite large, there are a good combination of small and giant rooms, and it’s transit accessible. There are also quite a few places with power outlets, so all of the attendees can charge their phones and laptops.
I’ve noticed some murmurs about the WiFi. I think the host of the convention ought to be responsible for setting up WiFi in the prescribed zones, and the convention centre itself shouldn’t be blamed for this.
The main complaint I have about this convention centre is the weird bathroom signage. There are at least two spots in the centre where it has a sign that says men’s and women’s washrooms, but there’s actually only one washroom for men OR women. I don’t know why they did that, and eventually I figured it out, but that is a big mistake for some building designer to make.
The area immediately surrounding the centre is kind of a dead zone, but Nicollet Mall is nearby, which brings much needed foot traffic and decently priced meals.

Was here from Oct. 10 to Oct. 12 for AIGA… and the place served its purpose. The rooms were well circulated… bring a sweater because sometimes it gets really cold but the sound system on the main auditorium was really good.
Their bathrooms could be a lot cleaner… and they do lack food option besides Dunn Bros coffee.

It’s big and nice, helpful staff. The choices of eating establishments is limited and really expensive, I suggest bringing your own food if you will be here a while.

The staff are pretty friendly when I attended the Minneapolis Auto Show. I was pleasantly surprised at how well maintained and cleaned it was. Parking isn’t too far from the location and I had a great time.

Not very many food choices and many of the places were closed. The food that you could purchase for the conference was burritos 3 days in a row. I got tired of burritos to say the least.

BIG and airy. It’s your typical convention center with food vendors, tons of bathrooms, tons of doors, miles of hallways. I had an easy time finding parking, it was affordable to park there all day, finding the show I was exhibiting. Very easy going and friendly staff.

So yeah, its a convention center. Its a manageable size, and is organized well — more around a central location then some of the sprawling monstrosities I have been in in other cities (hello Chicago!). Well kept, simple, organized, manageable, all pluses. I can’t say «yea! I’m a fan!» about ANY convention center, so three stars is as high as it can go, I think.

A nicely organized convention center.
Everything is conveniently located.
The bathrooms are extremely clean.
The building is very clean.
The parking is super cheap and easy.
The staff that was taking money for a business convention we went to was not very informative and kind of stand-​off-​ish… but I can deal with most people so it didn’t bother me much. Plus I am not sure if the staff is always the same or it changes with each convention.
There are many things to do/​restaurants that are walking distance away.

This was a decent Convention Center. It is a big one, and it seems like this center could easily house multiple conventions at the same time (I was here for a conference and easily saw three other get togethers going on concurrently).
In the big Exhibit Hall where I worked you have a huge domed area which was perfect for the Career Fair I was exhibiting at. The Convention Center has several parking options available across the street, and one can take the Sky Bridges to get into the Convention Center. Now I had an issue with my display here. I was so glad the Convention Center was near a hardware store which was walking distance away (
).
All in all, a decent place for your conference needs.

I’ve been here twice in the past month! Once for the auto show and then again for roller derby! I have to say it seems to be the place to host at if there’s any big event in town and that’s fine by me.
What I really like is the parking garage has a skyway so you can leave your jacket in the car. Don’t forget to take your ticket with you so you can pay on your way out though!
The food here was not too bad either, I was able to get a burrito bowl which is pretty healthy since your skipping the carbs from the tortilla. Of course they had the typical hot dogs, burgers and nacho’s too for those who want to indulge. Can’t wait to see what’s coming up next here!

A nice space as far as convention centres go. The red stone exterior is attractive and the place is accessible and easy to navigate. I also found that convention staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. And the rest of downtown is only a short walk away.
I didn’t check wi-​fi and quite frankly I don’t care. I’m here to talk and connect with people, not zone out in front of my screen.