Standing above the crowd at the Empress Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai's Empress Hotel rolled out the red carpet for the opening of its modernist-inspired Empress Convention Centre (ECC) last week. Located on Chang Klan Road, just 10 minutes by car from the Tha Pae Gate and a short walk from the Night Bazaar, the three-storey ECC is right next to the Empress Hotel.

With sophisticated technology and space for 1,500 delegates, the Empress is a fresh contender for the best convention centre in Chiang Mai.

"Unlike the many convention halls or function rooms in town that are part of hotels, the ECC stands alone, but with a hotel next door," says Kanog Suvannavisutr, general manager of the Empress Hotel. "We're very versatile. The ECC can handle meetings for 10 people or expos for a thousand."

The modernist/minimalist complex is designed to deliver a wide variety of productive, stimulating and rewarding engagements. The convention hall boasts 980 square metres of open, pillar-less hall space and 660 square metres of meeting area.

Completely soundproof partitions ensure that parties of all sizes can be comfortably accommodated without disturbing one another.

Add to all this a comprehensive range of support facilities: small breakout rooms, a business centre, simultaneous interpretation facilities, registration counters, VIP rooms and much more.

"The Empress Convention Centre cost around Bt380 million just to get up and running," says Kanog, who is confident that the ECC will get a good slice of the meeting and exhibition market in Chiang Mai. "We reckon that the ECC could break even in five years."

"MICE" (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) is Chiang Mai's answer to low-season tourism, says Kanok.

For 30 years, Chiang Mai has been dependent on the influx of leisure travellers in the high season. When the off-season arrives, hotel managers have the headache of trying to fill all those empty rooms. Many hotels are turning to the meeting market when the tourists disappear.

"There has been a growing market for MICE in Chiang Mai over the last five years," says Kanog, who is also the president of the Northern Hotels Association. "Chiang Mai offers the cheapest rooms around - just compare it to Phuket and Pattaya." With the improvement in infrastructure and increasing flights, Chiang Mai, he believes, is fast becoming the "in" place to hold your conferences and meetings.

The Empress Convention Centre, which has a 400-space parking lot, is 12 minutes by car from Chiang Mai Airport. It offers the same full range of hospitality services that are available at the Empress Hotel.