What makes a great Olympic facility? In each city that hosts the Games, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to erect, improve, or repurpose buildings to host not only the competitions, themselves, but all the support functions needed to make the entire event run smoothly and share it with audiences around the world. Great, iconic design can become as impactful as the medal count to the millions of viewers around the world.

The question of where to house the global media cohort needed for the Olympics is, therefore, paramount. The chosen site must provide peerless technical support for daily broadcasts to every continent on earth, with thousands of journalists accessing every possible platform. But more than that, the media center can become a signature location representing its host city.

When Vancouver, BC, hosted the 2010 Winter Games, this is precisely what happened with its International Broadcast Centre (IBC), which had just opened as Vancouver Convention Centre West (VCCW). The Vancouver Olympic committee had set lofty goals for coverage and digital accessibility for these Games, and the 330,000 square foot IBC hosted more than 10,000 journalists who produced and aired nearly 32,000 hours of global coverage watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide—twice as much as the previous Winter Games in Turin, Italy. The electrical and bandwidth demands were enormous. As a cutting-edge facility, however, the VCCW had been designed with state-of-the-art technology infrastructure. Even the most complex requirements of the media teams were supported, and the conversion of the enormous exhibit hall into media headquarters went off without a hitch.

Over the course of the Games, many journalists also broadcast from the upper levels of the VCCW, where their global audience could see the astounding views in the background. Immediately outside, they could also see the VCCW’s Jack Poole Plaza, a central gathering point for the fans watching and supporting the Games. Indeed, the Plaza was selected as the perfect site for the Olympic Caldron because of its clear identity as a spectacular civic destination where residents and visitors alike could access the waterfront, marvel at the spectacular mountains ringing the area, and enjoy a brand new perspective on the city.

The VCCW had been carefully sited and designed to do exactly this. It not only aligns with view corridors through the city, but integrates with a rich mix of urban circulation systems to extend and complete the string of open spaces lining Coal Harbor. It creates unique experiences along the waterfront, and while today these areas are full of visitors exploring, locals enjoying the outdoors, joggers, and customers to the dozens of restaurants and shops here, in 2010 these same attributes made it an iconic gathering point for both official Olympic celebrations and simple gatherings of fans.

In this way, this innovative convention center represented its city to the world. At the conclusion of the Games, the VCCW returned seamlessly to its original purpose. It has continued to be an iconic and world class destination, which, today, attracts more than 550 events and 1,000,000 visitors annually, contributing nearly $1.5 billion to Vancouver’s economy. The Centre, itself, continues to receive accolades, including being named a Center of Excellence and Best Convention Center multiple times by EXHIBITOR Magazine. The Caldron remains in Jack Poole Plaza, which, with the best views in town, continues to host public festivals and convention-related events as originally intended. The exhibit hall underneath Jack Poole Plaza may not have hosted the same numbers of international journalists in the years since, but it flexes just as easily to serve an incredible diversity of groups and events, offering them the space and amenities they need and providing access to all the other carefully created features which make this a truly special and memorable place.