Proposal:Events centre

Events centre
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	PanierAvide
Tagging:	amenity=events_centre Data item
Applies to:	,
Definition:	A place where events with a huge amount of people happen. For example, exhibition fairs, conventions, conferences
Statistics:
Draft started:	2014-10-29

Proposal

Hall of an exposition centre

Hall of a conference centre

This proposal aims to describe places where huge events happen, like exhibition halls, exposition centres, convention centres, and conference centres. They host regional, national or international events. They have dedicated buildings and services.

We distinguish two categories :

• Exposition centre : also known as exhibition hall, it's one or more buildings with an area between 5000 and 100000 m2. These buildings have a flat and contiguous floor, and provided equipments are moveable. They are located around cities, in order to be able to receive a huge amount of visitors (thousands of visitors). They host all kind of events (professional shows, public demonstrations, sometimes cultural events, ...). Here are some examples.
  • Parc des expositions de Villepinte, France
  • The Dome Center, USA
  • Earls Court Exhibition Centre, UK
• Conference centre : also known as convention centre, it's one building with several conference rooms, amphitheatres, meeting rooms, exhibition rooms and an hotel. They host professional or political events or fairs. This kind of event lasts for a few days, that's why there is an hotel. The amount of visitors is reduced (hundreds of visitors). Also some examples :
  • Arusha Internation Conference Centre, Tanzania
  • Palais des Congrès de Paris, France
  • Nottingham Conference Centre, UK

However, we frequently see some sites who belong to those two categories (Hong-Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, San Diego Convention Center, ...).

Rationale

Currently, there is no clear description of this kind of objects. Some tags are used, but only on a few objects.

• amenity=exhibition_centre
• amenity=exhibition_center
• amenity=exposition_centre
• amenity=convention_centre
• tourism=convention_center
• amenity=exhibition_hall
• amenity=community_centre in some cases, but it's not the goal of this tag.

Moreover, there is a confusion between the different kinds of events centre. The idea is to create a comprehensive tag to make it simple to describe.

Tagging

To tag events centre, two situations :

• When there are no other choices (low-quality imagery), put a node on the estimated centre of the object. Put the tag amenity=events_centre on it.
• When it's possible, we will describe events centre with an area.
  • If the events centre is a single building, put amenity=events_centre on the building area. Also add building=* to know that it's a building and not a land area.
  • If the events centre contains several buildings, create an area to describe the whole site. Put amenity=events_centre on this area. It's not necessary to add the events_centre tag on each building in the area.

Then, you may precise the kind of events centre, to do this use events_centre=* :

• events_centre:exhibition=yes for exposition/exhibition centres.
• events_centre:conference=yes for conference/convention centres.
• Both when the site can do both.

Additional tags

To describe further the events centre, you can add those tags.

• name=* : the name of the centre, for example San Diego Convention Center
• operator=* : the name of the company which manages the centre
• contact=* : contact details

Objects in the events centre area

Some features can be commonly found in events centre.

• Buildings
  • Exposition halls (huge empty buildings) : building=hall
  • Other buildings : building=commercial, building=*
  • Name or reference of the building : name=*, ref=*
  • Entrance, exit : entrance=*
  • Inside the buildings : room=*
• Parking : amenity=parking
• Toilets : amenity=toilets
• Restaurant : amenity=restaurant

Examples

The scheme in this proposal has been applied on some examples.

• Exhibition centres
  • Parc expo Rennes aéroport Parc expo Rennes aéroport : an exhibition centre in France (as a land polygon), which also hosts some cultural events.
  • Le Chorus de Vannes Le Chorus de Vannes : a smaller exhibition centre in France (as a site relation).
• Conference centres
  • Palais des Arts et des Congrès de Vannes Palais des Arts et des Congrès de Vannes : a conference centre in France (as a single building), which also hosts cultural events.

Features affected

As this kind of object is not really described, no feature is really affected. A wiki page will be created to document this tag.

Comments

• Use exhibition instead of exposition as events_centre=* sub-key, as the term is already used in OSM.

See also

• Proposed features/Conference Centre
• Proposed features/leisure=events
• amenity=events_venue (draft)