Austin Convention Center Voted Top Convention Venue of 2023 by Convention and Meeting Publications

December 1, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin Convention Center earned Best Convention Center titles in 2023, securing prestigious awards from Smart Meetings (Smart Stars Award) and Meetings Today (Best of Award). Additionally, it garnered the Reader’s Choice Award from Convention South and secured the second-place position in the Stella Award for Best Convention Center – Southwest. The center also earned the 2023 F&D Prime Site Award of Excellence from Facilities & Destinations magazine.

2023 Smart Stars Award: Best Convention Center

In the Best Convention Center category, the Austin Convention Center earned the 2023 Smart Stars Award, marking its seventh time winning in the competition hosted by Smart Meetings. Each year, the publication’s readers and community event producers nominate and vote for winners in this planner’s choice award program.

The Smart Stars Awards, now in its eleventh year, reflects the choices of meeting professionals who hand-pick outstanding properties and destinations across 31 distinct categories crucial to the success of their meetings and events. This annual accolade acknowledges meeting planners’ preferences for hotels, resorts, properties, cruise lines, and conference and convention centers worldwide.

2023 Meetings Today Best of Award Winner for Best Convention Centers

Meetings Today has honored the Austin Convention Center as a recipient of the 2023 Best of Meetings Today Awards. This annual accolade recognizes the top meeting facilities and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in North America, along with the leading global DMOs. The 2023 winners were determined through a voting process involving Meetings Today’s audience and content team.

The criteria for Meetings Today’s Best Of Award, a tradition spanning 22 years, encompassed various aspects such as the quality of meeting space, guest services and amenities, food and beverage service, efficiency and helpfulness of staff, availability and quality of tech, recreational activities, cleanliness, and overall value and experience.

14-Time ConventionSouth Annual Readers’ Choice Award Winner

The Austin Convention Center was honored with a 2023 Readers’ Choice Award, presented by the publishers of Convention South, a comprehensive multimedia resource for event planning in the Southern United States. This marks the fourteenth occasion since its inception in 2001 that the Austin Convention Center has received this esteemed award. The acknowledgment will be highlighted in the December 2023 Awards Issue of ConventionSouth magazine.

Meeting professionals, recognizing exemplary service for group events, nominated meeting sites, and over 8,000 voters actively participated in the selection process. As ConventionSouth celebrates its 40th year as a meeting planning resource for Southern destinations, the publication, headquartered in Gulf Shores, Ala., reaches over 18,000 meeting professionals across the country who organize events within the Southern region.

2023 Northstar Stella Award – Silver Winner Best Convention Center - Southwest

Receiving the silver-level distinction, the Austin Convention Center has been honored as a winner in the 2023 Northstar Meeting Group Southwest 7th Annual Stella Awards. This accolade, judged by Northstar and its publications Meeting & Conventions and Successful Meetings, acknowledges excellence in hotels, airlines, convention and conference centers, cruise lines, destination marketing organizations, and destination management companies.

With nearly 10,000 votes cast from participants worldwide across 16 categories and six regions, the Austin Convention Center stands among three convention centers in the Southwest region to earn Northstar’s Stella Awards. Winners were chosen based on criteria such as overall excellence, outstanding food and beverage offerings, professionalism of staff, sustainability initiatives, and other crucial aspects contributing to the quality of the meetings and events experience.

Facilities & Destinations Prime Site Award Winner – West

The Austin Convention Center has been honored as a premier destination for meetings and conventions, receiving the 2023 F&D Prime Site Awards of Excellence from Facilities & Destinations magazine. This annual award is bestowed upon the top convention and exposition centers across the United States, as determined by F&D, a quarterly trade publication catering to the meetings and events industry.

Chosen through a selection process involving readers, who predominantly consist of association and corporate meeting planners, as well as tradeshow professionals, this recognition highlights venues that excel in various aspects. These include safety and security measures, environmentally friendly initiatives, catering options, technological capabilities, the professionalism of staff and services, and overall health and safety standards. Since its inception in 1994, the Prime Site Awards has acknowledged the Austin Convention Center as an award winner for each of its 30 years.