Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF

When to a conference there fore 2 days. They are on top of their game. They have people cleaning all the time, replacing things like pens on tables after people leave, there are no issues what so ever with this venue. They even handle feed 700 like clock work. My only thing is that there wasn’t enough seating for the 700 but everybody found a place to sit.

Nice, roomy, plenty of parking, a bit of a challenge to get to. The conference center is on the 2^nd floor. There’s a place to get munchies and drinks downstairs but very few choices.

I’ve been here for 2 conferences and both went really well, Healthtech and Tedx, though, it would be nice if they changed up the food a bit, we had the exact same catering/​menu both times.

We love Mission Bay!
We chose Mission Bay for our wedding reception– mainly because it looked really cool, but as we found out, Mission Bay had many more perks as well. Lauren, the event planner, was SO helpful and awesome throughout the whole process. She was always ready to answer our bazillion questions and was great to work with in finalizing the details of our wedding.
Plus the venue itself is so memorable and is naturally looks really good in pictures! The architecture is so cool and we loved the different colors and lighting. The Atrium area is very spacious (we used it for cocktail hour) and the Fischer room was the perfect size for our guests.
Also, the food was amazing! We had specific requests for our dinner menu and the cook went above and beyond our expectations. Our guests loved the food! We wanted to eat more!
I highly recommend this venue for any event!

I came her for the San Francisco Giants Town Hall a few nights back and was blown away by the new UCSF facilities. Took a quick tour of the gym too (I’m jealous my brother at UCSF gets access to all this). The event itself was epic, I’m a huge fan, and my girl was kind enough to talk some of the guys working the event into getting me a few autographs (which were supposedly not allowed). (hunny, you rock btw).
But I digress, fantastic conference center, clean, well-​lit, and brand spanking new. Well done UCSF.

The building is stunning. The conference services are very good, the food appears to be improving. We had a small affair in the afternoon with sliders, sweet potato fries and ice cream sundaes. It was a little celebration on the Pink Patio and was absolutely perfect. I have both held and attended events here and have had good experiences. An added benefit is the color and lighting are excellent for photos.

I recently went to a Flash and Web Design conference at this newish Convention Center which is a part of UCSF’s campus. I was actually walking back and forth between here and Moscone where I had yet another conference going on. The walk each way took about 20 – 25 minutes so you get a nice workout going between the two. But don’t depend on Google Maps for directions. They’re still doing a lot of construction around the campus and all of Mission Bay, so I got lost the first time I walked over.
Center is small but pretty. The place is clean and the rooms are pretty big. WiFi works really well. The thumbs down are not a lot of dining choices (hope you like Subway) and while street parking is free for 2 hours, who stays at a conference for two hours? Then you have the garage parking for $ 24 and since most parking around Moscone starts at ten bucks, it’s a much better call to park there if you’re going to both centers as I did. I kept wondering the whole time I was there if I could use the fitness center, but then again, I was getting enough of a workout walking between the two centers.
I think the new center has a chance to grab a lot of Bay Area conferences but they need more accessible and affordable parking and more restaurant and bar choices within walking distance.

A colleague and I just hosted a very large business event here last week after having a few other seasoned event planners recommend it. Because other Unilocalers have touched on the merits of the facilities & amenities, I’ll highlight what makes this place stand out for me as 5-​stars:
Kyle and the staff! They were professional, thorough, responsive and extremely service-​oriented from day one and if anything, the service only got better as we became more involved in our engagement.
The climax of this came on the day of the event: me and my biz partner were astounded at how we’d simply mention a need and within minutes, Kyle or someone on the team would materialize to fulfill our request. My favorite of these images is when we needed to reconvene the crew after a break and said (to ourselves), «where are those end-​of-​break chimes again?» Instantly, Kyle drifted by, ringing the magical aforementioned chimes to signal to our 300+ attendees that the time to re-​enter the auditorium had arrived.
Just one of hundreds of seemingly small details that make a huge impact on the event experience.
Bonus: normally people who are hyper-​detail oriented aren’t very fun to be around. Kyle & Co. are a massive exception to this. Not only reliable, cost-​effective, professional and responsive, but super friendly. I hope we have another event soon, if only to work with them again!

I attended a wedding reception here and it is a beautiful venue. It was a room on the first floor that held a party of about 240 guests. The reception area was right outside the door which was really nice. The high celings made it feel nice and spacious. Guests even had the option to step outside which was beautifully landscaped. When walking into the reception area it looked absolutely gorgeous. The lighting, the seat covers, the centerpieces were all perfect. There was a lot of room between the tables which made it easy for everyone to get up and dance or walk around. The servers were great and the food was good. The only complaint I have was my steak was overcooked but thats a minor hiccup compared to the big picture of UCSFs Mission Bay. Another guest commented that this venue was just right. It didn’t feel too formal and it didn’t feel too casual. It was right in the middle where you appreciate the venue but you were still able to feel comfortable and have lots of fun. It turned out to be one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to and I highly recommend this place for receptions and/​or meetings.

If you’re thinking of a place to hold a conference or event, this is a great venue. I just completed a long day of CLE courses at the conference center. The highlight of the 8 hours was the scrumptious lunch and all the food that was provided. I don’t remember very much of the back-​to-​back classes I listened to, but I do remember the food!
Lunch consisted of an oriental salad, a dang good half chicken (santa fe chicken with guacamole, black beans, corn), and the molten chocolate cake to die for.
Snacks were offered throughout the day — warm pretzels with mustard, ice cream bars, variety of fresh big cookies!
Additional perks were the free wi-​fi, clean facilities, validated parking lot, and close proximity to the freeway.
If only all CLE courses were like this!

My high school class just had our reunion here and we had over 200 guests and the venue was perfect. Convenient parking, close to public transport and freeway.
The food was excellent… I’m only bummed I didn’t get to enjoy more since I was too busy running around. The desserts were spectacular and looked fresh from a baker’s window.
The facilities are beautiful and our contacts were very helpful and flexible. Caitlin rocks!
The only downer are the slightly expensive drinks. Expensive because the tall glasses are little on the small side — but that is relatively minor since we needed to meet the minimum bar. :D
I would highly recommend this space for a venue. We did ours on a moderate budget but it looked high class all the way.

I work from home doing a few things but one of my steady gigs is as a blogger for a trade magazine. As our only bay area resident, I get to attend trade shows, which I love (networking, bitches!). While this location is kind of annoying to get to (certainly not as easy as going to a trade show downtown), a few things make up for my trademark irritation with anything that is not the MOST convenient for me:
1) The Pub! While I certainly was not drinking on the job (although my editor likely would join me for a glass of wine or 5), the Pub was a nice place to get dinner after the first day of the show, where I desperately needed to decompress after a day of live blogging and typing «social networking» 8 million times. The food was decent — fries were covered in big chunks of sea salt and it wasn’t nearly as gross as my old employer, CPMC’s food. They also have FLAVORED water available whenever you want. That’s class, people. Plain water is for plebes.
2) The patio! The free lunch, which was very ordinary and not worth talking about, was held al fresco, my preferred way of dining. And the big lawn is an excellent place to get some sun after being stuck inside all day or to take a break.
3) Wi-​fi. You’d think tech shows would all have easy wi-​fi. You would be wrong. I didn’t even have to ask when I got here, there was an open network available right away and it has been fast and excellent.
My only complaint is that the conference rooms don’t have many outlets, but it’s my own fault I don’t carry around an extra battery for my sad little Macbook. All in all, I would say this is a great place to see some people speak and talk to your friends on Gchat and Twitter while scrambling to take notes.

Wow! This place is stunning. From the grand atrium to the third floor balcony overlooking a wooded «quad» and city lights to the yummy food at the pub, this place is awesome!
Went to a lecture here the other night and got dinner before hand. The lecture hall was very comfy and didn’t feel cramped or institutional even though a lot of people were stuffed in there.
The pub has sliders and fries or healthy choices like veggie stuff and salads. I got the sliders and they were good. The pub has bar seating and a giant flat screen or table seating and a giant flat screen. They serve beer and wine, and it was pretty reasonable.
Parking was easy in the garage right next to the building and cheap when validated.

I used MBCC to plan a Conference for 300+ people– it was fantastic! For those of you who plan events regularly, you know that finding organizations/​people who are reliable, detail oriented, and easy to work with can be a tough job– yet MBCC makes it look simple. Dawn is fantastic to work with; she is calm, organized, responsible, and managed every detail of our event from beginning to end. The staff at MBCC exceeded my expectations at every turn– the food was excellent, the staff were friendly and always helpful, everything was arranged as I had asked it to be and they accommodated any addition requests with ease.
If you are ever planning any kind of event, from a work retreat to a Conference, I definitely recommend that you look into using MBCC!