Nanaimo Convention Centre Vancouver Island Conference Centre Port of Nanaimo Centre

Canada's newest full service convention centre boasts a list of unsurpassed amenities and features. Vancouver Island Conference Centre will provide conventioneers full wireless access, digital way-finding and outstanding global broadcast capabilities.

Features of the Conference Centre include:

Audio visual

• Built-in screens and projectors in each meeting room and ballroom
• Fully integrated audio/video control system
• Digital way-finding
• Global braodcast and teleconferencing capabilities from every meeting room
• Six panel 46" digital displays in main entrance lobby
• Complete presentation and broadcast system in Shaw Auditorum
• Two projectors, screens and six cameras in Shaw Auditorium
• AV poer outlets strategically thoughout Ballroom

Telecommunications:

• Award winning, high reliability network
• Wireless capability throughout the complex
• Free wireless service for delegates
• 100MB high speed, high bandwidth, secure broadband  internet service
• VOIP and wireless VOIP telephone systems
• Fibre Optic cabling backbone throughout complex
• High speed 4GB backbone throughout complex
• 49 in-floor telecommunications access points in Ballroom

Facilities:

• 13,697 Sq. Ft. ballroom can be divided into four salons
• Nine multi-purpose meeting rooms
• 200 seat Shaw Auditorium
• State of the art kitchen/catering facilities
• Business Centre
• Two entrance lobbies
• Two expansive pre-function areas
• 300 space underground parking garage

Sustainable solutions:

• Downtown urban location - reclaimed building site
• Public transit accessible
• 2010: Attached hotel for reduced transportation needs
• Low emitting interior finishes
• Low-E windows
• Natual light and efficient lighting fixtures throughout
• Bamboo flooring
• Recyclable carpeting
• Low water flow bathroom and kitchen fixtures
• Dual flush toilets
• Urea sensing urinals
• Roof is built to support a green 'planted' roof
• Future plans include solar water pre-heating system

The convention facility is managed by Vancouver Island Conference Centre who can be reached by calling 250-755-4487 or 1-866-430-MEET (6338). Their fax number is 250-755-7711 and email contact at  meet@viconference.com. For all the information of what this amazing facility has to offer you or your organization be sure to visit their website by clicking this link.

Ravyn's Song

Organic Stone Mural by Stonemason/artist Andreas Kunert

This 32 foot long by 8 foot high Organic Stone Mural greets visitors in the lobby at the Gordon Street entrance to the Port of Nanaimo Centre.

The piece (if you can call 15 tons of stone a 'piece') took local artist Andreas Kunert a total of three months to build using a variety of stone from Vancouver Island, New Mexico, Idaho and Brazil.

Andreas who came to Vancouver Island from his native Switzerland via Montreal eighteen years ago named the piece after his daughter.

While perhaps not as relaxing as sitting beside the seashore, this unique mural does have a tranquilzing effect if you take the time to 'look' at it rather than merely rushing past.

This is how the artist describes his work:

Every piece I create is inspired by something, some event, some person.

This work is inspired by my five year old daughter Ravyn. It speaks of her

spirit, the rhythmic, playful movement of her becoming. It is the song I

hear as I listen to her composing the moments of our life together.

In this piece all of the stones are individually selected. Each is a note in

that song; each stone, paradoxically, speaks to me, selects me and I listen

attentive to its place in a melody I have already heard in a song Ravyn has

already sung.

The columns flanking the sides are naturally formed basalt. I found them

amongst the sagebrush of the badlands. Each weighs approximately three and a

half tons.

The shorter of the three, I have hollowed out and it contains an illuminated

crystal ball that journeyed here from Brazil.

The bench is basalt as well. One of its sides has been sawn and hand

polished.

The polished turquoise stone at the top is quartzite quarried and polished

in Brazil.

The saucers are from and ancient dry river bed from the southwest.

The pebbles are from the mountains around Vancouver Island.

Each of the these stones interacts and directly affects the stones next to

it. It is how I build, each stone affecting the next, causing the flows,

patterns and interactions.

While this piece is inspired by a personal experience, it is also a public

piece open to everyone's interpretation. Thus, it is the axis of innumerable

relations, the site of a creative activity that begins in childhood and

continues to grow through each encounter.

An enigma: it seems weightless, flowing, all the while being measured in

tons.

Open to interpretation, this piece speaks of spirit, of fluidity, of music,

of flight, of a society of mixed races and cultures, united by shared

concern, living in harmony at the edge of land and sea.

 

You can view more of Andreas work in stone by visiting his website using this LINK .

200 Seat Shaw Auditorium

The 200 seat theatre-style Shaw Auditorium which is where Nanaimo City Council holds their council meetings offers a complete presentation and broadcast system. There are two projectors, screens and six cameras in the Shaw Auditorium.

14,000 sq. foot Ballroom

The Ballroom will support groups of up to 1300 for theatre-style functions or stand up receptions. The room can be divided into four separate salons and is complete with built-in screens and projectors.

Gordon Street Entrance to the Port of Nanaimo Centre and the 307 stall brightly lit and secure underground parking garage which is conveniently accessed from Gordon Street just a few short steps from the Gordong Street entrance.