by Michele Gillis, Staff Writer
You’ve been there. You’ve been to meetings there, seminars or attended a luncheon. And you will most likely be there in a few days for the annual Realtor Builder Tradeshow.
But do you know how the events you attend come together? Or where the food comes from? Or the cost to rent a room?
The University Center at University of North Florida, recently renamed the Adam W. Herbert University Center to honor a past UNF president, has been open 13 years and played host to over 3,150 events last year, including many that were real estate-related.
The 95,000-square foot center is equipped with catering and audiovisual resources, and can handle several events at the same time.
“We have over 43,000 square feet of conference space,” said Erin Pauls, the center's marketing director. “That includes the Grand Banquet Hall, Board of Trustees room and 35 small seminar meeting rooms. The Grand Banquet Hall can be divided into six sections to fit the needs of the clients."
The event planners meet with the clients and handle the set-up time, lighting, break-down time, floor plan and room layout.
“So that way when you come in that day, you have your approved floor plan in place and you can move forward with the set-up and decorations,” said Pauls.
The University Center is centrally located and has over 600 parking spaces.
“It is convenient and safe,” said Pauls. “We have our own police department and a very safe campus. We have a lot of police officers patrolling the area to keep it safe."
Pauls said there are so many types of events that come in and out of the center everyday including conferences, trade shows, certifications, weddings, social events and political events.
“At many high profile events, we have heightened security including bodyguards,” said Pauls.
Typical clients include real estate companies and associations, CSX, the Duval County school system, UNF, Florida Blue and the city.
Hours of operation are 7 a.m.-midnight and there is a full-service conference facility with catering and the ability to have strong libations: the center has a liquor license.
“We can provide a 17-page menu that can go from a la carte to full banquets or you can do specialty snack rates,” she said. “The kitchen facilities are located in between our banquet halls so we can guarantee hot, efficient service and clean up in and out. We also have a full-catering and serving staff.”
During the day, 99 percent of the business is corporate or non-profit events. In the evening there are private events, receptions for on-campus events, proms, weddings and other social events.
Costs run from a half-day seminar room for $180 or full-day seminar room for $300. Grand Banquet Hall can be booked for a half-day event for $1,000 or full-day event for $1,600.
“If you wanted to partition it, the rate structure is broken down per section,” said Pauls.
The downturn in the economy affected the center for a few years, when many corporations were doing on-site training rather than renting rooms, but Pauls said during that time weddings increased up to 50 percent.
“Now we are really back to where we were six years ago,” she said. “The biggest event we’ve ever had here was the Barbara Bush event. She was on a book signing tour and doing a lot of fundraising for reading education. We’d had right about 700 people at that event. The largest tradeshow we had was a Ricky Tims Quilt show. We had over 5,000 people over a weekend.”