Tampa Republic

The Tampa Convention Center is in the running to retain its title as the Best Convention Center in the Southeast U.S., having advanced to the finalist round of the 2024 Stella Awards. The center was among a select group of nominees that garnered sufficient public votes to progress to the final stage.

In 2023, the Tampa Convention Center clinched gold in this category and is now vying for top honors for a second consecutive year. A panel comprising meeting and event professionals will decide on the gold, silver, and bronze winners.

The Stella Awards are considered the pinnacle of recognition in the meetings industry. Presented by Northstar Meetings Group, these awards acknowledge convention centers, conference centers, hotels, and other event suppliers that consistently offer exceptional service to meeting and event professionals. Northstar Meetings Group is recognized for its influential brands including Meetings & Conventions, Meeting News, Incentive and Successful Meetings.

A record number of convention centers, hotels, and other venues competed for the 8th Annual Stella Awards. Over 1,000 nominations were submitted across 16 categories and six regions worldwide.

Winners will be announced on October 1. Updates can be followed on Tampa Convention Center's social media at @TheTampaCC.

Situated in Downtown Tampa's heart, the Tampa Convention Center boasts sparkling waterfront views, 600,000 square feet of adaptable event spaces, and cutting-edge amenities for event and meeting planners. The venue was listed among 20 Centers of Excellence by Exhibitor Magazine - a list featuring North America’s best convention centers for trade shows and corporate events - and was chosen as a winner in ConventionSouth’s 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards. The Tampa Convention Center also received 2024 Global Biorisk Advisory CouncilTM (GBAC) STAR™ accreditation for cleaning, disinfection, and infection prevention. It is poised to host a record number of large citywide events in 2024 which are expected to generate an estimated economic impact of nearly $136 million and attract more than 354,000 attendees to the City of Tampa.

The Tampa Convention Center collaborates with several companies to offer high-quality event services to exhibitors. These include Aramark for food and beverage, Edlen for utilities, Encore for audio visual and rigging, Sentry Event Services for security, Smart City for Internet and telecommunications, and The UPS Store for shipping, printing, branding, and signs.

To learn more about the Tampa Convention Center, please visit https://www.tampa.gov/tcc.

Northstar Meetings Group is a leading B-to-B information and marketing solutions company that serves all segments of the business meetings, events, sports and incentives market. Its primary brands — Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Associations Meetings International, Meetings & Incentive Travel, Meeting News, Incentive and SportsTravel — currently serve over 500,000 active meeting and event planners and incentive professionals across an integrated suite of data, digital events and print products.

For more information about Northstar Meetings Group please visit https://www.northstarmeetingsgroup.com/.