After nearly 500 years as Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley is giving itself a makeover. The newly renamed city of Bengaluru aims to be to information technology what Paris is to fashion and New York City is to finance. No longer content to serve as the outsourcing capital of the world, Bangalore, or Bengaluru, has become a cradle of innovation, the thriving heart of the country’s software and biotechnology industries and the home of the subcontinent’s third-greatest population of millionaires. Today, the Garden City is taking steps to make it easier for meeting planners and conventioneers to discover its riches.

The opening this month of the new Bengaluru International Airport is one major development. The $600-million hub is expected to handle 3.5 million passengers per year — drawing all commercial traffic from Bangalore’s existing airport, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited International (HAL), where the passenger load doubled between 2001 and 2005. Bangalore also broke ground last year on a new highspeed rail service, the $1.2-billion Namma Metro, scheduled to begin operating in 2011. These projects together with the new traffic-jam-clearing Bangalore Elevated Tollway, which opens in September, suggest the city’s infrastructure is finally catching up to its runaway economy.

Bangalore is home to 18 percent of India’s top 210 information technology companies, a share that is expected to grow 50 percent for each of the next two years, according to financial analysts Dun & Bradstreet. But even that tremendous growth represents a slight dip from 2005 to 2007, when India’s IT sector grew by about 56 percent annually. That’s good news for those hoping to book a hotel room in Bangalore. While the city’s room rates are still the fifth-highest in the world, the average price dropped about 7 percent from 2006 to 2007 and is likely to become even more reasonable as the economy matures, according to a Hogg Robinson Group survey.

Hospitality is at the core of Bangalore’s long and storied history. Legend has it that an 11th-century king on a hunting expedition became lost in the woods near the Bangalore plateau. He met an old woman who offered him a dinner of boiled beans. In appreciation, the grateful king decreed that the future city on the site would be called benda kaalooru, or town of boiled beans.

Modern Bangalore began as a mud fort (the remains of which still exist near the historic Tudorstyle Bangalore Palace) and became a major trading and administrative center under the Vijayanagara Empire, the Mughal Kingdom and the British Raj. With the independence of India, Bangalore became capital of the state of Karnataka and the home of the Indian Institute of Science, the nation’s top technology and engineering school. Today the city is known both for the beauty of its public parks and the energy of its three vast industrial parks, including the 332-acre Electronics City, home to corporations such as Wipro, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola. The combination of historic beauty and bustling innovation has proven to be a major selling point for the India Department of Tourism, whose event planners often recommend a sidetrip to the crystal greenhouse of the Lal Bagh Botanical Garden or a shopping trip on Commercial Street or Residency Road.

Bangalore’s appeal helped India capture the award for Best M.I.C.E. Destination at the World Travel Market in 2006. The city’s growing reputation as an incubator of brilliant startup companies has made it irresistible to investors looking for the next world-changing technology, and its core of established giants in the information industry make it a natural destination for conventions. With the addition of bigger convention centers, more hotels and a new airport, Bangalore is finally ready to accommodate them.

CONVENTION CENTERS

BANGALORE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE
Any doubt that Bangalore was ready to take its place as a world-class convent ion destination ended with the 2007 opening of the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre. The center’s 34-acre campus includes three exhibition halls, a conference center and a technology center — all under one roof.

n addition to incorporating and accommodating the latest technology, the structure is one of India’s first major exhibition centers to be built under U.S. standards for green construction. Initiatives include recycling its rain- and wastewater and using an ozone-friendly, water-based air conditioning system.

The center’s three exhibition halls provide more than 430,000 square feet beneath the building’s arched roof. Its floors support 15 tons of weight and the technology demands of its exhibitors, with 10 megawatts of available power. The Conference Centre’s four air-conditioned halls provide flexible seating for groups of 1,500, 700, 200 and 100, as well as a boardroom and a VIP lounge. An additional Technology Centre, built by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association, provides seating for 160 people in two conference halls. A three-story food court includes a meeting facility and an exclusive rooftop club.
BANGALORE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE
10th Mile, Tumkur Road
Madavara Post, Bangalore 562 123
tel 91 80 6624 6600
http://www.biec.in

TRADE CENTRE BANGALORE
It’s difficult to miss the magnificent superstructure of the Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization’s Trade Centre Bangalore, with four glass geodesic domes forming a 107,000-square-foot ceiling supported by a single steel pylon and entered through a gate 31 feet high and 131 feet wide. Built on 50 acres as a joint venture of the India Trade Promotion Organization and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, the Centre includes an air-conditioned 58,000-square-foot Exhibition Hall and 10 open exhibition halls of 409 square feet each. Another 16,000-square-foot mezzanine floor provides a conference room for 200 delegates and two press conference halls.
TRADE CENTRE BANGALORE
Plot No. 121, Export Promotion Industrial Park
White Field, Bangalore 560 009
tel 91 80 5533 9704
http://www.ktpo.org

MEETING HOTELS

THE GRAND ASHOK BANGALORE
Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual leader and hero of Indian independence, once addressed a crowd in the landscaped gardens outside The Grand Ashok Bangalore. Today the secluded hotel offers meeting space for more than 5,000, including a 4,500-square-foot ballroom and 2,800-square-foot convention hall. Just over three miles from the city center and less than one mile from the Bangalore Turf Club, the hotel also provides 186 guestrooms and suites and a rooftop bar.$$$$
THE GRAND ASHOK BANGALORE
Kumara Krupa, High Grounds
tel 91 80 3052 7777
http://www.thegrandhotels.net

LE MERIDIEN BANGALORE
So inviting is the exquisitely designed lobby of the Le Meridien Bangalore, with its Spanish crystal chandeliers and capsule elevators, that guests can be forgiven for taking a moment to notice the hotel’s spectacular views of the city skyline. In addition to 195 guestrooms and suites, the hotel provides a ground-level all-business floor and six banquet rooms, from the cozy Senate and Embassy conference rooms to the Coronet Ballroom, capable of accommodating 600.$$$$
LE MERIDIEN BANGALORE
28 Sankey Road
tel 91 80 2226 2233
http://www.lemeridien-bangalore.com

LELA KEMPINSKI BANGALORE
Elegant, refined and adjacent to a glittering lagoon and the KGA Golf Course, the magnificent Leela Kempinski Bangalore offers 358 guestrooms beneath goldleaf domes and silk-draped walls on nine acres just one mile from the HAL Airport. In keeping with its status as one of Bangalore’s grande dames, the hotel features one of the city’s largest ballrooms — the 4,400-square-foot Grand Ballroom — and the 2,200-square-foot Royal Ballroom, as w ell as 10 other meeting and function rooms.$$$$
LELA KEMPINSKI BANGALORE
23 Airport Road
tel 91 80 2521 1234
http://www.theleela.com

TAJ WEST END
Taj Hotels offers guests the comfort and intimacy of a boutique hotel together with top-flight amenities and conference facilities in three locations. The Taj West End provides 117 guestrooms and six different conference rooms for groups of 15 to 600 and is well-equipped to host outdoor receptions in the Palm Grove and on the Prince of Wales Lawn.$$$$
TAJ WEST END
Race Course Road
tel 91 80 6660 5660
http://www.tajhotels.com

THE WINDSOR, BENGALURU
As host of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Conference, as well as the Miss World Pageant, The Windsor, Bengaluru has gained a reputation for opulent accommodations and refined cuisine. The hotel’s 240 wood-paneled guestrooms offer both Queen Anne furniture and plasma televisions. Its seven meeting rooms include the chandelier-filled Regency ballrooms for up to 275 guests, House of Lords conference halls and Manor House, an exclusive private residence with its own mini-boardroom.$$$$
THE WINDSOR, BENGALURU
25 Golf Course Road
tel 91 80 2226 9898
http://www.starwoodhotels.com

More Information

India Convention Promotion Bureau
tel 91 11 2687 3612
http://www.conventionicpb.org

India Department of Tourism
tel 212 586 4901
http:/www.incredibleindia.org

Karnataka State Tourism Development Corp.
tel 91 080 235 2901
http://kstdc.nic.in

Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization
tel 91 80 6533 9704
http://www.ktpo.org