
After a complete refurbishment taking two years, Hungexpo Budapest, owned by the French group GL events, a worldwide provider of integrated solutions and services for events, reopened in September this year to welcome exhibitors and visitors to the Hungarian capital’s fully renewed Congress and Exhibition Center.
Founded in 1967 and operating as a public limited liability company since October 1990, Hungexpo has been committed to the professional organization of trade fairs and exhibitions at home and abroad from the very beginning. With its extensive international contacts and network of representatives, it is now the leading exhibition and conference organizer in Central and Eastern Europe. The commercialization of its permanent exhibition space, the Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center, is another important pillar of the company's operations.
The now completed EUR 170 million (HUF 55 billion) public investment has resulted in the construction of two brand new pavilions – one of 7,250 and one of 5,700 square meters – and a new contemporary reception hall, as well as the renovation of three other pavilions with a total area of more than 32,000 square meters. During the process, more than 70,000 square meters of indoor and 36 hectares of outdoor space were renovated.
The entire utility infrastructure was renewed and the project also included high-quality landscaping with significant increase in green space.
The main missing link in the development was the construction of a congress center with 26 section rooms, equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual technology, and a capacity for 2,000 person plenary sessions.
The plenary seating area is equipped with the latest Gala Seats retractable seating system, which allows the venue to be transformed from an amphitheater-like layout to a flat space in a matter of minutes, as required. The 72-square-meter, high-definition LED wall, which takes up one side of the room, is also a record-breaker in Hungary and unique in Europe. The new congress center’s outstanding importance is also demonstrated by the fact that the building has a separate entrance from the Albertirsai road, so that congress visitors do not need to approach the venue through the exhibition halls.
The investment that has now been completed makes up for decades of backlog, the CEO of Hungexpo Plc., Gábor Ganczer, said at the opening. “Budapest was already a prime destination for conference tourism, but due to the lack of a suitable venue, it has only benefited to a limited extent from one of the most important and lucrative branches of quality tourism, business tourism. With a modern congress center and the revitalization of the entire area, Budapest will be one of the top five conference destinations in Europe and will now be able to host international congresses and conferences of almost any size," he added, pointing out that this major, comprehensive renovation and expansion allowed the facility to "arrive in the 21st century."
More and more events expected
According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) database, Budapest has so far lagged far behind Vienna and Prague in the number of annual association events due to lack of capacity. With the expansion of Hungexpo, Budapest is now expected to become one of Europe's top five conference destinations and the Hungarian capital will be able to achieve a better ICCA ranking as well since it will be able to host more and bigger events than before. The primary goal is to get Budapest into the top 10 in that ranking.
Major events held at Hungexpo since the renovation included the Tuning Show, the Eucharistic Congress and the International Hunting Exhibition, among others. Although visitors and clients are more cautious and are experiencing a 15-20% decline, Gábor Ganczer is optimistic for the coming year. He is cautiously expecting a resumption of international events in the second half of 2022, with a rebound expected in 2023-24: “following an unprecedented quiet period for the events industry worldwide caused by the pandemic, event organizers, associations and corporates are eager to return with their events to be able to meet face-to-face. Exhibitors and visitors are very much looking forward to once more attending well-regulated business events.”
For the coming years, Hungexpo is working on bidding for several major international events, of which Budapest is expected to host in 2022 the European Psychiatric Association's (EPA) Annual Congress and returning to HUNGEXPO after 2016 once again: Bocuse d’Or European Selection.
On the occasion of the opening, one of the visitors to the site was Sven Bossu, CEO of AIPC, International Association of Convention Centers. “I had the pleasure to see the profound transformation of HUNGEXPO on site and it is truly impressive. The brand-new conference center is not only pleasing for the eye, it also offers ultimate flexibility in terms of room capacity and set-up – including the plenary room, which can be transformed into several multi-function spaces in a minimum of time. This needs to be considered in combination with the renewed exhibition halls, varying from 5,000 sqm to 20,000 sqm, which are only a footstep away. As a result, HUNGEXPO can indeed host any type of event, whether it is a big congress with an exhibition or a massive exhibition with a small conference. These days, flexibility is the key success factor and HUNGEXPO definitely has everything it takes,” he stressed.
New buildings
A 21st-century architectural design structure, with an entry hall on the ground floor and HUNGEXPO offices on the 2nd and 3rd levels, is also part of the new construction. The building is already becoming a landmark of the Congress and Exhibition Center.
The addition of two new event halls – Hall H (5,700 sqm) and Hall E (7,300 sqm) – takes the total indoor space available to 70,000 sqm.
The three-level state-of-the-art Congress Center (Hall C) on 15,000 sqm includes a 2,000 pax plenary hall and three dozen smaller meeting rooms, plus a 2,500 sqm expo area and a rooftop terrace.
A kitchen and confectionery that can serve 2,000 people covers 1,320 sqm (with a 54-sqm cold room and 24-sqm freezer).
With the two new exhibition halls and the new congress center, HUNGEXPO is now the largest multifunctional exhibition and congress venue in Central Eastern Europe.
The new Congress Center
- Central Europe's largest conference building, consisting of four parts: head building, expo hall, foyer, conference hall.
- Ground floor registration area of 1,000sqm in the center of the building, connecting with the conference hall and the expo hall.
- Ground floor conference area: 8 new section rooms of 1,800sqm, suitable for 100, 200, 400 or 600 pax. Rooms can be used multifunctionally – from 100 to 600 pax can be separated or connected.
Foyer in front of the rooms is 1,100sqm, ideal for catering, poster sessions, exhibition space, etc. - The ground floor expo space is 2,500sqm. This space can also serve as breakout meeting rooms (3x700pax). It can be divided into three parts, with a net internal height of 10m.
- Gallery floor: 16 breakout rooms, 75sqm each. Rooms can be opened together to 150–225sqm.
7m wide foyer in front of the rooms, which is perfect for smaller coffee breaks. - The Plenary Hall is 1,890 sqm. It can be divided into three parts using mobile walls. It can accommodate up to 2,000 people.
- For the first time in Central Europe, equipped with Gala System seating solution
- Gala system is a custom-built auditorium technology equipment. It includes a total of 2,038 built in conference chairs in three sectors, which can be arranged automatically in different schemes. In addition, it is possible to create spaces from a completely flat layout, through the implementation of a cinema-style step-by-step layout, with partially or fully open rows of chairs, or even without chairs, and to divide the plenary room into up to three parts.
- The plenary space can be transformed quickly and flexibly.
- The speakers and amplifiers manufactured by JBL company provide quality sound for the performances in the various divisions of the plenary hall.
- In the plenary hall, the wall behind the stage is covered by the largest 72-sqm LED wall in Budapest.
- 1,700-sqm foyer surrounding the plenary hall.
- Possibility of parallel events.
- Above the expo hall, a roof terrace has been created covering an area of 2,350 sqm.
The internet service provider Magyar Telekom planted high-capacity, gigabit 5G access in the entire area of the renewed Hungexpo site. The built-up network also allows good quality access indoors. 5th generation mobile technology enables higher data transfer rates, low latency, and the simultaneous connection of many network devices.


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