I've never actually been in here before, but I I spent the day and evening here for a quilt show and auction, respectively. Not only is it situated perfectly, right in downtown with tons of options for eating and shopping nearby (if you've a notion) but I've always loved the way it perches over the freeway, swathed in ivy. The food options inside aren't great, but there is a Tully's (and, inexplicably, a coin shop). I found all the employees extremely helpful. Parking is right there, and there are at least 3 other garages within two blocks, and the interior is attractive and airy. read more

like most convention centers...large & full of visitors lol nice area...kind of easy to get around so that was great!! read more

The Washington State Convention Center is a centralized location surrounded by major iconic and historical landmarks such as the Freeway Park, streets, shops and restaurants all within walking distances to the convention center. Also, features Interstate 5 Freeway which passes below the Washington State Convention Center. Architectural concrete giant with modern details and large glass windows juxtaposed the hustle and bustle of surrounding area and literally housed in the heart of Downtown. As mentioned, Freeway Park is synthetic and man-made oasis juxtaposed the exquisite and mammoth Washington State Convention Center and stunning ambience of Puget Sound. Very clean and well-maintained facilities all throughout. High ceiling and open space concept interior design and architecture. Take other forms of transportation as overcrowding is inevitable. read more

A nice, airy venue for SAKURACON! Their food is ludicrously overpriced and quite mediocre, but whadya expect I guess. I like this place because it's spacious and clean. read more

I think the builders and architects of the convention center did a marvelous job constructing this place considering that they had to overcome quite a few obstacles like building over I-5 and building a structure on a huge three story hill. And, it was built with such elegance. The inside is quite inviting as well. I would have no problems with hosting an event here. I take off one star simply because they need better food choices than they currently have. But, overall, this is an asset to the city of Seattle. read more

This place is so HUGE! Went to PAX in 2016 and Emerald City Comic Con in 2017. So many things to see and levels to explore. The layout of the place made it easy to navigate my way through even with the intense crowds. read more

Great location, we visited for the flower & garden show. It's a large convention center, with lots of walking inside. Parking around the area changes on event days, so don't rely on website parking fees. But do shop around. Pacific place has maximum parking prices on the weekend, so that's a safe bet, with average pricing, for a full day, if you can't be bothered to look for cheap car parking. The flower show had lots of great garden ideas and exhibits, well worth a visit. read more

Clean facility, large conference rooms, a very reasonable array of restaurants and hotels in the vicinity. I would definitely organize another large meeting at the convention center -- just not in October (or November, December, January... well, any month except June). read more

Cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen at a place this big and busy. There were 4000 people at the particular event I was there for, but somehow they managed to keep everything pretty neat, clean and organized. The free wifi was nice too. Not good enough for streaming movies, but good enough for checking mail and things. read more

This was my first time at the WSCC. It's nicely laid out and (mostly) easy to navigate. All rooms and locations are easy to find because of well placed signs. Bathrooms can be a little scare to find, which is disappointing. Also, they weren't well cleaned either. I have a feeling that the homeless of downtown use it was their personal washroom. They have several food options in here: cafe/bakery, Tully's, Subway, a pizza joint, taco del mar, Juicy Cafe and a sit down restaurant. There is also a Fedex Kinkos here which is extremely convenient. The staff here is also helpful whether it be their catering, AV or regular customer service staff. read more

As far as convention centers go, this one was modern and nice. the 3 sets of escalators can be a bit much if you are going to a room at the top. There could stand to be a few more bathrooms. I don't know if it was just the conference I was as but the WIFI was terrible. read more

This is a review of the garage. Here's a tip from a really bad experience: make sure your ticket states exactly the hour you arrived. Ours had 10 am when we arrived at 1pm. We had to pay for 2 extra hours for no reason... read more

Spacious, easy to navigate, and a great location convenient to many hotels and restaurants. It was a pleasure to attend a conference here!

Huge venue, ample space + windows + rooms for all your large conference needs. Cleanliness + staff friendliness can be improved upon, but event management can take long hours + stress w/crowds. Parking $15-30 in lots or garages downtown on average. Terrible + expensive Aramark food. Fairly decent access northbound I-5 via Madison Street exit, but roads + night lighting leave much to be desired. Even so, some nice views from inside, and places to eat in Westlake district nearby. read more

On the evening of 21 Dec 2016 I had a bad experience parking here. Although the parking garage is open till midnight, the Convention Center doors were locked when I got there about 10pm. There were signs in the window explaining where to get in the building - however there were two entry doors (and two divergent paths to get there) depending on the shape of the parking ticket you were holding. Neither of the tickets on the sign matched the ticket I was holding, so I picked the one the most similar (same outer shape). Next I had to walk about 1/4 mile around the building, and thru a maze, to get inside. Once I was inside I tried to pay for parking only to find out that the machine rejected my ticket. I figured out at that point I had gone the wrong way. The correct choice would have been to head toward the entry that did NOT resemble the ticket I held. Sure enough after another 1/4 mile of walking I got to my car, via the other door. Then I waited about 15 min thru a monster line of cars to get out (with one gate clerk working). Bottom line - NEVER park here. read more

The best convention center ever! I've been to a number of conventions and this by far is the best one I've been to! The parking spaces are so easy and you don't have to walk a mile or two just to go back and forth to your car. It's really accessible since there's a door way and signs everywhere. It's walking distance from Pike Place Market and there are some eating places inside, so if you're there for a convention you don't need to go super far. A+ in my book read more

I came here to participate the bmes conference. The facilities here are good but the structure of the building is confusing.

I just got back from my trip to the emerald city comicon and they provide a clean and well staffed event space. The food is expensive so pack a snack, maybe check out a food cart right outside the building. The sky bridge is a Mecca for selfies. Beautiful view, and as for comicon, lots of caped heroes to snap a shot with. Parking near there is rough, bust out your quarters, 4 bucks gets you about 2.5 hrs of city parking spot. Happy travels yelpers :) read more

I'm writing on behalf of PAX Prime. I'm just so happy it's not somewhere else. This is the perfect place to have PAX. Big thanks to staff members for dealing with our shiz. read more

The facility was perfect. As an exhibitor, we were extorted by the facility at every turn. They know that they have you coming and going. The extra charges and the mandatory overtime labor you are forced to use is pathetic. The men they sent were laborers and had a good attitude. Was it $200 an hour worth of good attitude? I think not. The weight charges for display goods was pure extortion. read more

We have conferences here a lot and have to say that it is clean. The staff is very hard working. A bit too much as they will often take your plate of food at the dining hall while still eating. I don't mind, but if someone is sitting in front of the plate I would expect if it is ok to take it away. Some levels have very low amounts of restroom space, except floor 6. read more

Nice place. Open, plenty of sunlight. The room configurations seemed to work out for the conference I attended. We walked from our hotel (5 blocks) so I don't know about parking - but parking anyplace in downtown Seattle is an arm & a leg, so why would this place be any different? I didn't really check out the stores in the lower level, but I saw food and souvenirs. The staff was friendly and I thought the food the convention center provided was very good, considering the situation. read more

I went there for the first time at the NW Garden show. It was magnificent. I never thought that the convention center is beautiful place to discover. I really like it's interior, how they have some secret gardens out of the glass windows. I will sometime try to work there. read more

I've been here for several conventions and have always had a great time. This place is huge. Lots of room for even the biggest conventions. The outside garden makes for a nice break from the crowds too. read more

I've been going here for Sakura-Con for the past 5 years or so. Its a really nice place to hold a large anime convention. There are hotels and restaurants near by and small restaurants inside the center. It also has very nice outside spots for photo-shoots. read more

Hi, I attended a 3 days SQL PASS Summit from Wednesday 25 Oct to Friday. I must say thank to all the staff at the Convention Center. On the second day of summit, I accidentally left my wallet on a table outside one of the hall. The wallet was full of my credit cards and money. Next day the security office returned me the wallet without a penny missing. The cleaner who found, didn't leave a contact so I couldn't thank him/her. Security staff refused to receive any money as a reward.. wow, what a wonderful people :). Thank, Fahim (California) read more

Just got back from the annual fundraiser for the YWCA at the convention center. They do a fabulous job day in and day out. Just want to say THANK YOU to all their employees who knock themselves out to put on a great event. Cindy read more

I'll start with the good. It's a beautiful space. I love this whole area of Seattle and it's great to have a giant space for conventions. Now the bad. The employees are some of the most vile people to be around. I have never been treated so poorly in any establishment. Mind you, I'm only here for Sakura Con (an Anime and Japanese culture festival) every year, so naturally there are a LOT of younger people who don't always behave the best. But in my job, I'm taught that customer service comes first. That means if someone is giving me a problem, I have to smile and give them the utmost respect, even if I don't want to. It seems like 90% of the staff is over 60. What's up with that? I was yelled at for the most bizarre things. At Sakura Con this year, I stopped for just a moment after stepping off the escalator. I was trying to figure out which direction to go, and within five seconds an employee yelled at me to keep walking. It wasn't even crowded. I turned around to look at her and she looked as if I had just crapped in her yard. Another time I was sitting on a concrete slab with my friend. I was next to a cafe with at least six employees who didn't once tell me to get off. All of a sudden an employee yelled at me from thirty feet away to get off. Imagine being at the grocery store and an employee yelling an order at you. If I ever yelled at a customer at my work I'd be fired. I am not trying to act entitled, I just REALLY appreciate some common courtesy. Talk, don't yell. Ask, don't tell. Say please and thank you. I say it to them, why can't they say it to me? I've heard many of the same complaints from other convention attendees and it's becoming a problem. We're here for fun and this kind of treatment is sucking it right out. Sakura Con pays these people hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent this space. It's just unbelievable. read more

facilities look nice. lots of staff to help you find where you need to go (and make sure nobody who isn't supposed to be there is). love that they separate trash, compost, and recycling. like the local coffee options and convenience of the Kinko's. feedback for the folks who run the place to consider: - it would be great if the autoflush toilets didn't spray everywhere when flushing - consider installing water fountains for filling water bottles (the bottled water dispensers were always empty, and water fountains had poor water pressure) - signage needs improvement. a lot of times, only some of the rooms would be listed on the overhead signs. that is, the range of room numbers didn't include all of the rooms that are down that particular hallway for some reason. very strange. - consider ways to better regulate room temperatures. almost all of our session rooms were extremely warm. word to the wise: wear layers that you can take off! more lunch options would be nice. there's not a whole lot of cheap, quick places nearby (I'm not very familiar with the neighborhood, but I only found a couple places that weren't high end). also, wifi in the center wasn't very reliable. read more

Vendors beware. Contract work done to the clients spec and no payment. They will infringe on your intellectual rights and make you spend money and time at your risk. Our small company came in, produced to satisify the convention center's customer and delivered the product timely and professionally only to be denied payment after protecting this business interests. Our work was web broadcasting and a on-demand presentation on DVD. read more

This is one of the worst parking garages I've ever had to deal with. I attended a concert nearby and while exiting the machine experienced a ticket jam. The man request we "just back up" and would not send any help. Instead I had to ask a line of 10 people to back up so we could use another ticket booth to exit. Absolutely embarrassing customer service and terrible layout. The signage was hard to follow. I will never park here again. read more

I recently attended a conference at the Convention & Trade Center and it was OK. It is rather confusing in there although there were always several employees directing people. I could never find one direct route to some of the rooms, I had to take a series of different escalators and an elevator. I didn't mind the walk it was just the time it took to get from one location to another within the convention center. Also, some of the rooms were quite small, it made it difficult to find seating in some of the lectures that I wanted to attend. I also found that some of the folks that work there were a bit high strung...a couple of them came running after me shouting that they couldn't see my badge under the scarf that I had on. Overall it was OK, I just wish that the floor plan was a bit easier to figure out and a bit less confusing to navigate through. If they had portable maps that would have made it quite a bit easier on folks. read more

Watch out for scam charges if you exhibit at a trade show at this convention center. Their work sheet showed their labor was 15 minutes (2:30 to 2:45 pm on a Monday) and they charged 1 hour of straight time and one half hour of overtime for 15 minutes of straight time work. Unfortunately the credit card company had no recourse since when you log unto their web site you agree to abide by their (tine print) terms and conditions which say they can charge you whatever they want. read more

If you have a choice do not rent from this location. Despite havaing a reservation they gave my car away and offered me sometning smaller that did not fit my passenger or luggage needs. They did not offer to get a car from another location and wer very cavalier in attitude as if my coporate business was not needed, well guess what, Hertz has sent me to Eastlake Enterprise Car Rental. Enterprise had exceptional customer service and I was in and out with the car I needed within ten minutes. Way to go Hertz, keep sending business to Enterprise. read more

I was here for Sakura Con 2015 and even though I've only been to a small number of convention centers over the years prior to this convention (Anaheim, LA, Long Beach, San Jose and San Diego), I have to say that this center is by far the most beautiful and perhaps one of the more well designed centers in my opinion which is saying something considering the work that Anaheim has recently done on their center. While the vertical layout over 5 floors (technically 6, but the 5th floor seems to be mostly used for staff/administrative purposes) may be intimidating at first, navigating around is actually not that hard once you get used to it. Ample meeting rooms and expansive exhibit hall space abound in this bright and open center which features a top to bottom glass front and back which lets in plenty of natural light (that is when it's sunny in Seattle) and gives the center a more natural feel as opposed to the stuffy and closed in feel that you get in San Jose and Los Angeles for the most part. Also scattered throughout the convention center that are attractions on their own are various art displays and sculptures as well as plentiful trees, shrubbery and other nature features that again one would likely not see in many convention centers. When the hustle and bustle of the convention you're attending is overwhelming, the 2nd and 4th floor have access to a serene retreat in the attached Freeway Park to give you some quiet time in the midst of the big city. Overall, a very clean and well kept facility with ample ballrooms, exhibit halls, bathrooms as well as food options self contained make this convention center in my book the best of the best. read more