Paul Szydelko
The Las Vegas Convention Center's three-year, $600 million renovation was completed in time for last week's CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show), its largest annual show and another busy year for convention attendance.
The refreshed Central Hall Grand Lobby features a glass curtain wall and an emphasis on natural light. A 75-foot-by-42-foot digital screen and two other screens anchor the lobby. The screens provide new opportunities for show organizers and advertisers; there were no large digital screens in that location before the renovation.
Another new element is an interior concourse that connects the North Hall and the South Hall, enabling attendees to move throughout the entire facility without leaving the center's interior space.
A new east entrance provides an additional public access points, offering more convenient access from parking areas and the South Station of the Las Vegas Loop. The entrance leads to a new lobby, which takes visitors to a renovated prefunction space with entry portals into the 800,000-square-foot exhibit hall.
The center's boardroom is almost double the size of the previous boardroom. A movable partition enables the room to be reconfigured into a flexible technology-enabled meeting space for trade show customers.
The West Hall's signature exterior ribbon roof was extended to match architectural flourishes across the 4.6 million-square-foot campus.
"This milestone signals the next leap for trade shows in Las Vegas, delivering a world-class convention center experience that reflects the scale and ambition of our city," said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The renovation, which began in 2023, followed up on the $1 billion West Hall opening in 2021. Meetings and conventions continued while the work was being done.
"CES demands the best in hospitality and logistical precision, and Las Vegas delivers that better than any other location," said Gary Shapiro, the CTA's executive chair and chief executive officer.
Attendance at this year's show was 148,000, up from 142,465 a year ago, according to the CTA. More than 55,000 of those attendees were international visitors.
The convention center is scheduled to host at least 48 trade shows with 1.2 million attendees this year, an increase from about 1.1 million in 2025.