South Bend: Convention Facilities

South Bend/Mishawaka offers excellent meeting facilities, totaling more than 300,000 square feet of combined meeting space, and the community has nearly 4,000 hotel rooms. The principal meeting site in South Bend is the Century Center, situated on an 11-acre downtown riverfront park with direct access to major hotels and five miles from South Bend Regional Airport. Integrated with theaters, parks, art galleries, and a museum, the Century Center complex consists of three convention and exhibition halls, a great hall, a ballroom, a thrust-stage theater, a recital hall, and suites. Its convention and exhibition halls offer a total of 37,000 square feet of unobstructed meeting and exhibit space. The great hall, a multipurpose courtyard overlooking Island Park and White Water Rapids, is suitable for banquets, receptions, dinner dances, and exhibitions. The ballroom offers nearly 6,600 square feet of space suitable for meetings and banquets. Bendix Theatre has seating for 718 and is suitable for meetings, shows, and performances. The recital hall, with seating for 166, is suitable for breakout sessions and performances. The suites consist of up to 11 variable-sized rooms.

The Morris Performing Arts Center, the oldest theater in Indiana, features an auditorium, restored and renovated in 2000, that can accommodate more than 2,500 attendees for lectures, meetings, and conferences. Morris also houses the lavish Palais Royale ballroom which, restored to its 1923 grandeur in 2002, is considered the city's premier banquet facility. Additional convention facilities can be found on the University of Notre Dame campus at the Athletic and Convocation Center and the Center for Continuing Education.

Convention Information: Convention and Visitors Bureau of South Bend/Mishawaka, Commerce Center, 401 E. Colfax Ave., Ste. 310, South Bend, IN 46634; telephone (800)519-0577