San Jose McEnery Convention Center
150 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95113
The convention center is located on San Carlos Street, filling the block on the south side of the street between Almaden Blvd and S. Market Street.
There are 5 main entrances at street level into the center:
- Eastern Entrance on South Market Street
- Western Entrance on Almaden Boulevard
- Plaza Entrance on San Carlos Street side
- Interior Entrance from the Hilton San Jose
- Interior Entrance from the Marriott San Jose
There are also two interior sky bridge entrances on the 2nd floor concourse level from the Hilton and Marriott, as well as entrances from the attached parking garage.
For reference, the convention center's own maps usually flip the image to a southern orientation, as though you are facing the center from the north, with the Plaza entrance at the bottom and the Exhibit Hall and parking structure behind the center at the top.
The upper level contains the exhibit halls, program rooms and grand ballroom.
About the Convention Center
San Jose’s convention center should be familiar to anyone who attended the 2002 Worldcon. But it’s also familiar to the people who attend Further Confusion (2012-present), FanimeCon (2004-present), Big Wow Comicfest (2013-2015), APE: the Alternative Press Expo (1994-Present), and Silicon Valley Comic Con (2016-present). It’s a great convention hall for geeky events.
If you haven’t been to the convention center recently, though, you won’t have seen the beautiful new expansion that opened October 2013. And you definitely haven’t experienced downtown San Jose’s free “Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi” that’s just been extended to provide service throughout the convention center.
The convention center now has 550,000 square feet of combined convention space. In addition to its 325,000 square feet of exhibit space, it has (depending on configuration) up to 43 meeting rooms with capacities from 50 to 3,900 in theater style seating.
As to accessibility, the convention center has hosted the Bay Area Accessibility Expo for several years now. I think that says more than anything we can say ourselves about the accessibility of the facility. It’s tried, tested, and accessible.
While the convention center is connected to two hotels, and within blocks of 5 more hotels, it’s also quite commuter-friendly. VTA Light Rail and bus lines serve the convention center stop, and a free downtown shuttle provides connections to Caltrain, ACE, Capital Corridor and Amtrak trains at nearby Diridon Station.
If you’re planning to use mass transit to get around, check out the Bay Area Clipper Card. Much like London’s Oyster card, Dublin’s Leap card and the Carte Orange of Paris, Clipper is a contactless transit payment card that makes navigating the different transit agencies and services a breeze.
For a fabulous overview of the convention center, check out SanJoseMeetings.com
Smoking Policies
We’re bidding in California. Very few indoor venues still allow smoking. The McEnery Convention Center, San Jose Marriott and San Jose Hilton are all non-smoking facilities. Smoking is permitted outdoors.
