Venues
Information and links about potential event venues, for comparison/research purposes.
Greater Columbus Convention Center
The devil you know.
Ohio Expo Center and State Fair
Most facilities here are targeted toward farm shows and events needing large open spaces. Some buildings have closeable partitions but resulting spaces still tend to be large.
Best buildings look to be the DiSalle Center (largest room holds 450) and the Rhodes Center. Buildings are near each other but not connected.
Rhodes Center has attached dormitory and cafeteria. Not sure how dorm rooms work. Some hotels in area, on-site camping. Parking is $5/entry.
DiSalle is nice, but perhaps too small to contain the entire event. Rhodes has large open spaces.
NorthPointe Hotel and Conference Center
http://www.northpointecenter.com/meet/
Virginia Building: Largest room (Grand Ballroom) holds 600, can split into 4 rooms. Several rooms with capacity (PDF) of 40-100.
Ohio Building: dining for 375 max.
Buildings and hotel are on same site but not connected by indoor walkway. Hotel has 119 rooms, a dozen more hotels < 1 mile away in Worthington and Polaris.
Far away from downtown.