The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) is a group of three adjacent buildings next to the Yarra River in South Wharf. It hosts everything from meetings, conventions, and exhibitions, to concerts, trade shows, and gala dinners.
The Melbourne Exhibition Centre was opened on 14 February 1996 and is known colloquially as "Jeff's Shed" after the then Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett. The building has become an icon in Melbourne due to the main entrance marked by a prominent tilted metal blade supported by a pair of yellow sticks in combination with the 450m urban verandah, supported by a forest of smaller sticks. It was designed by Denton Corker Marshall, an architectural firm responsible for many of Melbourne's larger buildings through the early 1990s and features their characteristic "blade" entrance.
The Melbourne Convention Centre was opened on 5 June 2009 and was the first convention centre in the world to achieve a 6-Star Green Star environmental rating.
The 20,000m2 expansion opened on 1 July 2018 and includes 9,000m2 of exhibition space plus additional flexible, multi-purpose event space, a 1,000-seat theatre, multiple meeting rooms, a banquet room, and a café and bar.
Altogether, the iconic venue incorporates 63 meeting rooms, outdoor courtyard spaces, a plenary that can be divided into three self-contained acoustically separate theatres, a 9,000m2 multi-purpose event space with a retractable 1,000-seat theatre, and 39,000m2 of pillarless exhibition space. The total size of MCEC is 70,000 square metres, making it the largest convention and exhibition venue in Australia.
