I am looking for a list of 5-10 Convention Centers or Hotels with
large ballrooms to add to my list. The key characteristics are:
- in the Oakland, CA or surrounding area (such as San Francisco, Hayward,
Fremont, Richmond, Foster City, or South San Francisco).
- at least 15,000 square feet in one room, preferably with no pillars
- able to drive or roll vehicles inside for a display
- Must have air conditioning

My list already contains:
- Oakland Convention Center
- Moscone Center
- Fort Mason Center
- Alameda County Fairgrounds
- San Mateo County Events Center
- South San Francisco Conference Center
- Santa Clara Convention Center

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Request for Question Clarification by boquinha-ga on 12 Jun 2006 18:11 PDT

Hello bobcdavis-ga!

I'm researching your question. I'm finding some locations that
*almost* meet all of your criteria, but the square footage is smaller
in some instances. Are you willing to budge at all on that and if so
what is your absolute minimum?

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Boquinha-ga

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Clarification of Question by bobcdavis-ga on 13 Jun 2006 10:09 PDT

Thank you very much for looking.  I need one room with at least 10,000
square feet.  If there are adjoining rooms to make up the other 5000
or so that would be fine.

Hello bobcdavis-ga!

My husband grew up in the San Francisco area and thought this would be
an easy one to answer. Now I know why you?re asking researchers to
help you out! This wasn?t as easy as I originally thought! It has
taken several days as well as hours of research, but I was able to
find some venues in the Bay Area that will meet your needs. I also
found one that almost works (it?s floor space is a touch small?14,000
square feet). I?ve included addresses, phone numbers, and website
addresses for each location. Here they are:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

San Francisco Design Center

Concourse Exhibition Center 
101 Henry Adams Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 490-5800 
 
http://www.sfdesigncenter.com
info@sfdesigncenter.com

This facility is huge! It has roughly 125,000 square feet of usable space.

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Cow Palace

P.O. Box 34206
San Francisco, CA 94134
(415) 404-4100 

http://www.cowpalace.com
whaub@cowpalace.com

This site is very well known. If it can accommodate Monster Truck
Rallies, I?m sure it can accommodate you! (Located at Geneva Avenue
and Santos Street in San Francisco)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Treasure Island

Building 180 
410 Avenue of the Palms
San Francisco, CA 94130
(415) 274-0660 
 
http://www.sfgov.org/site/treasureisland 
marianne.thompson@sfgov.org

There are a number of facilities on Treasure Island, but this airplane
hanger style building is the only one large enough to accommodate your
needs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

San Francisco Marriott

55 Fourth Street 
San Francisco, CA 94103 
(415) 896-1600

http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/sfodt?WT_Ref=mi_left

The Marriott has multiple large ballrooms, and from the floor plans it
appears that you would be able to drive vehicles onto the floor. I
contacted this establishment. An employee at the Marriott told me that
you should be able to drive vehicles onto the floor. You would
definitely want to investigate further as to your specific needs, but
it certainly seems that this would be a good fit.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

San Jose McEnery Convention Center

150 W. San Carlos St.
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 277-5277

http://www.sjcc.com/sjmcc/index.html

The main ballroom here is 22,000 square feet, with drive-up access
from each of the loading bays.

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Centennial Hall in Hayward

22292 Foothill Boulevard
Hayward, CA 94541
(510) 881-1911

http://www.hayward-ca.gov/departments/finance/centennial/mainhall.shtm

This facility has a main room with 14,000 square feet of space, and
has several smaller adjoining rooms.

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Paramount Great America

I?m throwing this one in as a bonus?something to consider. This San
Jose area theme park has a large conference center that may meet your
needs (although the largest room is 12,000, but with no adjoining
areas). Their site was difficult to navigate and the proper person to
contact was not available this week to speak with me. If the other
venues don?t pan out, you can contact this one and see if it works.

http://www.pgathrills.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This site has a nice venue search feature for the San Francisco Bay Area.
http://www.sfcvb.org/venuesearch/special_searches.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

There you go! Good luck in your endeavors. You may need to contact
your desired venue(s) to confirm that it truly meets all of your
needs, but I believe these will work. If you have any need of further
clarification, please let me know how I can help. Again, good luck to
you and I hope this really helps you out!

Sincerely,
Boquinha-ga


Search terms:

Oakland California [conference OR convention] center
(I performed similar searches for San Francisco, Hayward, Fremont,
Richmond, Foster City, Redwood City, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Bay
Area, San Ramon, San Rafael, and San Jose)

Thanks so much for your help.  We will contact them to see if they meet our needs.

You are very welcome! Thank you for the 5 stars! 

Sincerely,
Boquinha-ga