With the Elicium the RAI directly addresses this desire for community. The building comprises a ballroom, four floors of conference rooms and four floors of offices. Its intelligent layout and infrastructure (including lighting, air conditioning, IT facilities and furnishings) allow the top four office floors to be transformed into meeting rooms and boardrooms within a day. It is this flexibility that makes the RAI the largest conference centre in Europe with regard to room numbers and allows it to facilitate meetings in the ‘special category’ such as those organised by the World Bank or IMF.
Wide appeal
Taking into account the 50 million euros spent on the Elicium, Amsterdam RAI has invested some 110 million euros in the renovation and upgrading of its complex and facilities since 2003. Now the RAI is very much ready for the future. Especially in these economically challenging times, the investment in the Elicium is proving of great value to the RAI. The demand and number of bookings for the new building have already exceeded expectations.
Architect
The Elicium is being designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. Among the previous commissions of this leading Amsterdam firm have been the WTC Schiphol, Schiphol Plaza and the Malietoren in The Hague. The special design of the Elicium will give Amsterdam
Elise lights up the Elicium Amsterdam RAI officially opened its new RAI Elicium building on Tuesday 29 September 2009 with an impressive multimedia theatre spectacle. His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange (right on image, next to Amsterdam RAI CEO Hans Bakker) and a thousand invited guests saw the Elicium’s guardian angel Elise light up the evening with a sparkling audiovisual performance. MOVE, a renowned live marketing bureau from Haarlem, teamed up with the RAI to create this memorable production.
With the opening of the Elicium, Amsterdam RAI has become Europe’s largest congress centre in terms of halls.
Elicium opened, investment programme concluded
The opening of RAI Elicium concluded an extensive multi-year investment programme of 111 million euros aimed at upgrading the RAI. Thanks to the extra conference and meeting rooms in the Elicium, including the possibility of using so-called flexi-offices, Amsterdam RAI can rightly call itself ‘the largest conference centre in Europe’ in terms of the number of rooms. With this proposition, the RAI hopes to become an even more important player in the market for large international multi-day events.