High tech capitol features state-of-the-art convention hall.

by Contributor

The Scene

It's only natural that San Jose, the self-proclaimed capital of Silicon Valley, would host conventions about such unsexy topics as embedded systems and disk storage. Those subjects are infinitely interesting, however, to the thousands of software programmers, electrical engineers and project managers who continually flock to the center's mostly high-tech trade shows.

The Inside Story
Built in 1989, the 143,000-square-foot center includes 30 meeting rooms, a 22,000 square-foot ballroom and 116,000 square feet of pre-function space on the Concourse and Registration levels. The entry hall, with murals made of thousands of vibrant porcelain tiles, evokes San Jose's Spanish heritage. San Jose boasts a whopping 300 days of sunshine each year, so even though the limitations of chip space may warrant all your attention, take a break and get yourself some smog. . . err. . .air.