These Three Florida Convention Hubs Just Keep Growing

Central and South Florida’s convention business is booming — and its facilities along with it. The state’s major convention centers all posted strong numbers. The Orange County Convention Center (OCCC), is projected to host 185 events In its 2025–2026 fiscal year, with an estimated 2.3 million attendees. In 2025, the Miami Beach Convention Center hosted over 537,000 attendees at 143 events, and Fort Lauderdale held 48 conventions at the newly expanded Broward County Convention Center, according to convention bureau statistics.

Orlando Keeps Expanding

The OCCC broke ground on its $560 million grand concourse expansion last December, with completion expected in 2029. The venue will add  44,000 square feet of meeting space and a 100,000-square-foot ballroom to the North-South Building.

The OCCC also received approval for a second phase of the expansion project that would bring an additional 200,000 square feet of contiguous multipurpose exhibit space to the building. When completed, both phases will provide 1.15 million square feet of exhibit space in the North-South Building.

The OCCC will continue to host events throughout both phases.

The city’s biggest convention hotel and the world’s largest Marriott property, the 2,010-room Orlando World Center Marriott, completed a renovation of its grand ballroom spanning more than 36,000 square feet of event space, with 14 configurable spaces. The venue offers more than 500,000 square feet of flexible function space.

Just down the road, The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin are undergoing a $275 million renovation and expansion opening later this summer. The project adds more than 100,000 square feet of new event space, including a 38,000-square-foot divisible ballroom, along with upgrades to the guest rooms. Once complete, the resort will offer more than 450,000 square feet of meeting space across the Swan, Dolphin, and Swan Reserve. 

Miami Construction is Booming

Miami’s skyline is dotted with cranes, and the construction includes its convention hotels.

The oceanfront Loews Miami Beach Hotel, steps away from the Miami Beach Convention Center, just completed a $55 million transformation, with redesigned guest rooms, and two new restaurants. 

Also located right near the convention center of the former Collins Park Hotel site, the 289-room Hilton Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel is set to open this month. It will have a restaurant and two rooftop pools with city views, plus a main pool.A long-awaited convention center hotel, the Grand Hyatt Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel, will open in late 2027 and be attached to the facility via a climate-controlled skybridge. The 17-story, 800-room property (including 52 suites) will have its own 90,000 square feet of indoor meeting space. 

News From Fort Lauderdale’s Convention Complex

The expanded Broward County Convention Center, featuring more than 1.2 million square feet of space, a 350,000-square-foot exhibition hall, and a new waterfront ballroom, opened at the end of last year, along with the attached 801-room Omni Fort Lauderdale Hotel. The center now includes 525,000 square feet of meeting space, with a 65,000-square-foot waterfront ballroom. The hotel rises 29 stories above the Intracoastal Waterway, with ocean views from every floor. There’s 120,000 square feet of meeting and event space with the largest room can accommodating 3,500.

Also in Fort Lauderdale, The Diplomat’s two-year renovation was just completed, with the 1,000-room property has been rebranded as the Signia by Hilton Diplomat Beach Resort. The renovation focused on the lobby and exterior, and all 200,000 square feet of meeting space, and added a 14,000-square-foot oceanfront event lawn.