The former Olympic zone at the top of Beijing’s central line has been designated a cultural and sports hub for large-scale business events by the Beijing government. The site is already home to the modern China National Convention Center, but has lacked a sense of complete event capabilities until now.
Driving the cooperation between venues is InterContinental Beijing Beichen, which is working with its Olympic Green neighbours to provide all-in-one packages for domestic and international groups. In February the hotel hosted 100 buyers for the programme’s launch, with the support of the Beijing Tourism Administration.
Top venues
The WaterCube is an iconic structure and is popular for corporate hospitality. Groups of less than 1,000 people can easily book the tennis-court area for functions with as little as one-month’s notice, although free slots are hard to come by later in the year. Hyundai will host an event for a group of this size here in April.
Bigger groups with longer lead times (six months recommended) can take over the whole facility for events of up to 3,000 people. The swimming pool that Michael Phelps powered through can be covered and fitted out with first-class audiovisual and lighting equipment for similarly memorable performances.
The five-level TV Tower has also been used by groups including IBM and Lenovo. Each layer can host 80 people for dinner. The top level is most often used for executive dinners or pre-dinner cocktails for larger groups, who then move down the tower. BMW hosted an owners’ event at the Indoor Stadium recently, which included a series of concert performances that moved through the decades.
Coming up
The new China National Art Museum will open on the northern side of the Bird’s Nest in 2014. Developers are currently deciding on the right architectural proposal and construction is expected to begin at the end of this year. A large Confucius Institute and cultural centre will open around the same time.