Sandton Convention Centre handles congresses, exhibitions, gala dinners, product launches and weddings, from a 10-seat boardroom to 4,500 seated guests in the Pavilion. Across more than 22,000 m² of flexible space, the centre can receive up to 10,000 visitors at a time. It stands on Maude Street in the business district of Sandton, in northern Johannesburg, and is operated by the hotel group Southern Sun.
Seminars and company events
The centre is built for large professional programs: congresses with breakout sessions, trade shows, award ceremonies, concerts and launches. Several events can run at the same time, as the boardrooms and committee rooms sit on different levels from the main halls. A meeting of ten fits in a boardroom, while a plenary of several thousand moves to the Pavilion on the top level. Hybrid formats are available, combining an audience in the room with remote participants. The in-house team supplies audio-visual equipment, décor and catering, and organisers send a request for proposal to the centre's planning team.
Weddings and receptions
The centre also hosts weddings, from a small ceremony to celebrations for up to 2,500 guests. The Ballroom is the usual choice for a formal evening reception. Menus can take the form of a champagne breakfast, a brunch or a full dinner, with options for dietary requirements. Churches, synagogues and mosques are close by.
Rooms and capacities
The Pavilion, on level 5, seats up to 4,500 and suits concerts, stage productions and large launches. The Ballroom takes up to 1,500 for a formal dinner or gala and 1,100 in schoolroom layout, and its foyer holds about 770 for drinks. The Bill Gallagher Room covers 568 m² and seats 230 for dinner, 240 schoolroom style or 400 for a cocktail. Five committee rooms, two floors above the Ballroom, range from 81 to 229 m² and take 10 to 200 guests in cinema, schoolroom, banquet or cocktail set-ups. The boardrooms on level 2 take from 10 to 200. For exhibitions, Exhibition 1 offers 5,430 m² at street level with a 6.5 m ceiling, overhead rigging and climate control, and Exhibition 2 adds 5,050 m², for 10,480 m² of floor in total.
Accommodation
There are no bedrooms in the centre itself. The venue lists nine hotels nearby, several of them run by Southern Sun, which helps when delegates need room blocks for a multi-day congress.
Catering
Catering is handled in house, with menus designed for each event, from coffee breaks and conference lunches to seated banquets for more than a thousand guests.
Getting there
Sandton Gautrain station is about five minutes away on foot, and the Gautrain reaches O.R. Tambo International Airport in about 15 minutes; by road the airport is around 35 minutes away. Lanseria International is about 30 km from the centre. Skywalks connect the building to Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square, and close to 11,000 parking bays serve the precinct, with entrances on Alice Lane, at Nelson Mandela Square and at Sandton City.
