BEST FOR… ARCHITECTURE FANS
Puerta America
With a different international designer responsible for each floor, including Norman Foster and Jan Nouvelle, guests can check into anything from a space-age sleeping pod to a Japanese ryokan or a 1960s retro pad.
The Puerta America is more of a statement than a hotel, but if you want unique, then here it is. Foster and Partners, Google, Zaha Hadid Architects and JP Morgan are among the UK visitors to have enjoyed the black swimming pool, individual floor lobbies and transparent walkways.
The five meeting rooms can hold up to 210 delegates each, but these take a back seat
compared with the sheer adventure and spectacle of the hotel itself.
http://www.hotelpuertamerica.com/
BEST FOR…CULTURAL GROUPS
Museum Reina Sofia
This former 18th-century hospital looks bleak from the outside, but the new extension,
which opened in September, merges futuristic facilities against a historic backdrop.
Architect Jan Nouvelle has created a fascinating space that has recently been used by BT and Mercedes-Benz. A huge abstract sculpture hides a range of rooms, including three auditoria for up to 400 and the oldschool, wood-panelled Protocol Room.
The old building can be used to good effect too – the atmospheric cloisters can host
receptions for up to 500, and private tours can be arranged. The museum also houses
Picasso’s Civil war masterpiece ‘Guernica’.
http://www.museoreinasofia.mcu.es/
BEST FOR…GALACTICOS
Hotel ME
A luxury hotel where the lobby staff are more expensively dressed than you. The Sol Melia
The capital’s top meeting places Madrid offers some outstanding cultural and rural venues
for adventurous convention groups, Paul Oswell reports group’s new design brand has an instant flagship in the Hotel ME (‘Melia Experience’).
Overlooking the Plaza Santa Ana, the property opened in 2006, with arguably the best views in the city on its 360-degree terrace.
There’s free wi-fi over the 400 sqm meeting space, which can hold up to 126 delegates.
All parts of the bar and restaurant can be hired, with the spaces carefully controlled by
the ‘ambiance manager’.
There are two private dining rooms for up to ten people each, and the terrace boasts
a VIP area within a VIP area – an inner sanctum with an exclusive entrance and private bar that will wow small groups.
http://www.memadrid.travel/
BEST FOR…RURAL RETREATS
Euroforum
Madrid’s location is one of its main selling points, particularly when it offers facilities such as this – just on the outskirts but a world away. This training centre and meetings space is 40 kilometres from central Madrid, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in the Guadarrama mountains.
The main site, in the former royal residence of the Casa de Familias, has 14 meeting rooms
for up to 150 people and an auditorium for up to 325. It’s a reflective rural bolthole, away
from the distractions of the capital but still easily accessible.
There are 230 rooms for residential stays, recently taken up by ADS, IBM and McKinsey among others.
http://www.euroforum.es/
BEST FOR…LARGE-SCALE EVENTS
IFEMA
Since 1980, the Feria de Madrid has been the main exhibition facility in Madrid. The most
recent addition has been the Juan Carlos I Exhibition Centre, which opened in 2002.
The site now features 150,000 sqm of exhibition space spread across ten halls.
It hosts more than 70 trade shows per year, and will add a further two pavilions by the end
of 2007. There are 70 spaces in total, and two auditoria for 600 and 1,200 people respectively.
http://www.ifema.es/
BEST FOR…OLD-WORLD CHARM
Palace Hotel
Squatting regally between the Prado, Thyssen Bornemisza museums and the Reina Sofia Centre, the Westin Palace Hotel is a baroque masterpiece, conceived by King Alfonso XIII
for hosting Europe’s royalty. Understated it is not. The main lobby is crowned by a startling
glass dome, and the property is home to one of the biggest ballrooms in Spain.
JP Morgan, Ernst & Young and PWC are among the corporates to have recently enjoyed
the ornate finery. In terms of meeting rooms, they don’t come much better than the
Beckham-endorsed Salon de Prado, while the 18 banqueting and meeting rooms can host up to 800 delegates, many of whom will enjoy the dramatic backdrop of Neptune Square.
http://www.westin.com/
BEST FOR…NEW VENUES
Madrid ICC
The four towers, which already dominate the skyline of the northern district of Paseo de la
Castallana, are a precursor to the new Madrid International Convention Center (CCICCM).
This complex, due to open sometime in 2009, will eventually have a total capacity of 5,000 delegates, and it will be run by Madrid Espacios y Congresos. The centre will be served by its own underground ringroad allowing access from the city centre, and will be surrounded by a huge urban park.
It adds to the already impressive portfolio of exhibition spaces managed by Madrid Espacios y Congresos, which currently takes in the Madrid Arena, the Palacio Municipal de Congresos, the Casa de Campo and the Juan Carlos I Arena.
www.concursociccm.com
