Venue: Palexpo
Town: Geneva, CH

Palexpo is a convention center in Geneva on the adjacent territory of the municipality of Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland. The buildings are owned by the canton of Geneva while the company is a semi-private foundation. The center is located close to Geneva International Airport. There are seven halls, and 102,000 square metres of exhibition space. Palexpo is the successor to the old Palais des Expositions in the downtown Plainpalais district which was built in 1926 for the Geneva Motor Show. After the Second World War, other fairs were also organized there, such as the Salon des arts ménagers and, from 1971, Telecom. The construction of the Palexpo began in 1978, and the four first halls with 58,000 m2 were inaugurated on 18 December 1981. The Palexpo was then expanded three times: in 1987 with Hall 5, in 1995 with a multi-purpose indoor arena connected to the 7th hall of the complex, and in 2003 with Hall 6 built above the A1 motorway. Under Halls 1 and 2 there is a congress center with a hall with 2,200 seats and seven smaller halls. Villa Sarasin, a 19th century mansion located right next to Hall 1, offers exclusive reception rooms and seminar rooms. Until June 2008, almost all of the buildings were owned by the Fondation du Palais des Expositions, the public foundation that already managed the old Palais des Expositions in Plainpalais. The exception was the most recently built Hall 6, which was owned by the public law foundation Fondation pour la halle 6. Since 1957, the old Palais des Expositions and then the Palexpo were operated by the Orgexpo Foundation (Organization d'expositions). The two foundations were merged in June 2008 to form the public limited company Palexpo SA, which is majority owned by the Canton of Geneva. Since 1 January 2009, Palexpo SA has also taken over the operation of Palexpo from the Orgexpo Foundation. In early 2009, the Palexpo underwent a renovation project to enhance and improve the convention center's architecture, furnishings, and