INSIGHTS WITH VICKIE MITCHELL
BIG PERSONALITIES
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f you’ve ever thought all convention and expo centers feel the same, these five facilities will change your mind. Each has found an inventive way to distinguish its spaces. One has added a bar that serves a local spirit, another will soon open a museum that salutes a beloved legend and a third has created a space to escape sensory overload. Each demonstrates that with just a little imagination big gathering places can feel a lot more personal.
Inventive twists give big boxes plenty of individuality
Owensboro gives bourbon a shot.
Find calm amid cacophony in Overland Park.
Conventions are typically chaotic. There’s chatter, blaring announcements, flashing lights and scurrying attendees. Staff at the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, Kansas, spoke up about how, especially during stressful times like a pandemic, people with autism, anxiety, PTSD and other sensory issues might need a break from the cacophony. Management listened. The center consulted with KultureCity, a nonprofit that helps those with sensory sensitivities, to create a quiet, calming space to decompress. The convention center says it is the first in the world to offer such a space. The room has low lighting, bean bag chairs, a white-noise bubble wall and tactile art by an autistic artist. By adding the room and training at least half of its staff to be advocates for those with sensory needs, the center has earned Sensory Inclusive Certification. Attendees can also borrow the center’s KultureCity Sensory Inclusion Bags, which have noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, verbal cue cards and weighted lap pads. opconventioncenter.com
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In Kentucky, the Owensboro Convention Center has assured a shot of bourbon is close at hand with its bourbon bar. A local craftsman used three oak bourbon barrels as a base for the wooden bar. Shelves of rough-hewn timber behind it are lined with bourbon bottles and drink glasses. Most of the 50 or so bourbons cost $8 a shot, with a few of rarer ones like Wild Turkey Diamond or Forged Oak Orphan Barrel costing as much as $50 a shot. In 2019, the center’s staff selected a barrel of bourbon from Bulleit Distilling, its partner in developing the bar, and that barrel has been tapped and served exclusively at the center. The bar is open to the public for Friday happy hour; meeting planners can book it for bourbon-themed receptions and happy hours. owensborocenter.com
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