Iloilo Convention Center

Iloilo Convention Center, known as ICON, stands on Megaworld Boulevard in the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, on the 1.7-hectare site of the former Mandurriao Airport. It was built from 2013 and inaugurated on 14 September 2015 by President Benigno Aquino III at a cost of 747 million pesos, in time for the APEC 2015 meetings, when it hosted the SME ministerial meeting and the senior disaster management officials' forum. It is a two-storey building with 11,832 sqm of floor area, a 3,700-seat main hall on the ground floor, 500-seat function rooms on the second floor and a 1,500 sqm rooftop for outdoor functions. Its architect was the Ilonggo designer William Coscolluela, whose scheme draws on two local festivals: the paraw, the double-outrigger sailboat raced in the Paraw Regatta, and the Dinagyang festival, whose abstract patterns are etched into the glass walls. That reference gives the building its landmark identity in a city rebuilding its old airport land as a business district. The centre sits among the hotels, offices and commercial space of the business park, with a forecourt that handles arrival and registration for large delegations. Iloilo International Airport in Cabatuan is 17.2 km away, about 24 minutes by road, and the city's jeepney and taxi network reaches Mandurriao directly.