b'NEWANDRENEWED VENUESFive fresh faces for your next eventby Warren HeeleyCM&E is pleased to continue bringing our readers the latest news on recent changes in corporate meetingandeventspaceinCanada.Venuesoptionsarecontinuallychanging,anditcanbea challenge for meeting planners to keep up. Our regular column seeks to help planners stay ahead of new developments so they can make informed decisions for their next event.CM&Ereviewedfivemeetingandeventpropertiesthatrecentlycompletedrenovationsor introduced new sites. Here are the highlights:BMO CENTRE EXPANSION Calgary, ABCalgarys newly expanded BMO Centre opened in June 2024. The $500-million expansion increased the facilitys total floor space to more than one million sq. ft. and elevated Calgary to top-tier destination status in the global meetings and conventions market, according to the centre.Described as Western Canadas largest convention centre, the expansion includes two new ballrooms, 38 new meeting rooms and over 100,000 sq. ft. of new exhibition space. The convention centre now has 500,000 sq. ft. of exhibit, meeting and banquet space and 500,000 sq. ft. of pre-function and heart of house space. Exhibit space now equals 350,000 sq. ft. and sectional meeting space equals 80,000 sq. ft. that can create as many as 65 meeting rooms, plus 15,000 sq. ft. of outdoor space.There are now three ballrooms that are 50,000, 20,000 and 12,000 sq. ft., respectively. The centre is located in southeast Calgary, close to downtown and a wide array of accommodations from BNBs to hotels. The centres in-house kitchen provides event menu needs, and audio-visual as well as special needs for unusual events is provided by Encore.Visit venues.calgarystampede.com/event-spaces/bmo-centre for more information on BMO Centre.34 CORPORATE MEETINGS & EVENTS corporatemeetingsnetwork.ca'