CONFERENCE FACILITIES

Baku Congress Center

Baku Congress Center is a multifunctional building with clearly structured but flexible rooms and spacious public areas covered by a shared, elegantly curved shell. The heart of this international conference center is the auditorium for 3,500 visitors that is flanked by 15 conference rooms and spacious networking areas. 405 m2 monitor is installed in the hall of the building. It's the largest multi-pixel monitor in the world installed indoors. In general, the building has more than 50 monitors of different sizes.

The auditorium can be used for many purposes, thanks to its flexible seating and rolling floor systems: for conferences or symposiums, trade shows and exhibitions, as a theater, for banquets, or divided by curtains and mobile partitions for several simultaneous events. The office wing and the media center on the upper floor can be accessed through the main foyer and separate entrances. Areas for building services, deliveries and a kitchen that can serve 1500 guests are on the ground floor below the conference level.

Several ramps and elevators give visitors barrier-free access to the foyer, auditorium, conference rooms and office spaces. The total area of the Congress Center is 6.2 hectares and the area of the building: 46,600 square meters.

Heydar Aliyev Center

Heydar Aliyev Center is a 619,000-square-foot building complex in Baku, Azerbaijan designed by Iraqi- British architect Zaha Hadid and noted for its distinctive architecture and flowing, curved style that eschews sharp angles. The center can host up to 1.200 people in one room. It looks as though a dazzling intergalactic space station has decided to land in a Baku park, and is a sight you won't rapidly forget. Lavish modernist swathes of internal space continue the extraterrestrial chic with an artistic sparsity of clutter and so much space that it is almost possible to entirely overlook the existence of the centre's vast 63m-long conference hall. Dividable into three sections on request, the hall's decor continues yet further the elegant simplicity of design albeit with acoustic-enhancing faceting on the uncoloured walls. Above is a truly magnificent modernist theatre with full range of state-of-the-art theatre-style dressing rooms catering to international stars who perform here - recently including Michael Bolton and Kitaro. There is also a 30-person board room available for smaller meetings.

The center is named for Heydar Aliyev, the leader of Soviet-era Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982, and president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003.

Baku Business Centre

Baku Business Centre is a suavely discrete three-storey meeting centre, designed like a modern art sculpture in polished marble and glass. The building's tapered front cylinder rises subtly between the trees and spiral topiary of the city's bay-side promenade while extending a light-suffused rear section towards the Caspian waterfront affording delightful wave views from the airy, oversized «Sham Boulevard» dining/coffee-break area (seats 300).

The centre incorporates a total area of over 4,600 sqm over its three levels, with a 2,025 sqm (350-seat) showroom on the ground floor and three sophisticated conference/meeting rooms above (hall capacities of 70 and 20 plus a boardroom designed for 10). A fine range of technical equipment is available including video projector, Wi-Fi and three equipped booths for simultaneous translators. A curiosity of the first floor is an exhibition showcasing Azerbaijan's recent economic, infrastructural and cultural achievements along with selections of local products. The venue has hosted high powered meetings for a variety of prestigious organisations including the UN, the presidential administration and several ministries. Business Center has facilities to welcome up to 1000 people.

Gulustan Palace

The Gulustan ("paradise”) Palace combines history and utility with a unique Soviet-retro flavour all of its own. Tucked into the hilly parkland beside the Baku funicular, the location is peaceful yet only a short climb by stairway from the western side of the Old City. The complex has a vast main hall, around 7m high and with a floor space of over 1,700 sqm (48 by 36 m) and can host up to 1000 people. The ceiling is festooned with lighting assemblies made up of metal bars and glass ball lamps giving the impression of a giant chemistry set. A special gangway entrance from stage left seems designed for a prima donna. Big breakout areas at either side of the main hall include a special VIP entrance into the northerly one. Terraces have excellent views looking out across Baku and the Caspian bay while a range of smaller meeting rooms include the gently raked Kino Zal with its red theatre seats and laminate veneer walls.