Giant Expos Headed for Monaco’s New Enlarged Grimaldi Centre in 2025?

Did you know that with the Mareterra Portier Cove extension of Monaco into the sea that Grimaldi Forum itself will expand and have an additional 6000 square metres of exhibition space! 

That’s a huge addition and opens up all sorts of possibilities for events in 2025. In fact just the excitement about the new Mareterra “island-style marvel” has been enough to rev up interest in exhibitions and conventions whose organizers are always seeking the very best. 

Even while the Grimaldi Forum extension is still under construction, the Principality’s Expo and Convention teams are not letting the grass grow under their feet. 

And one of the best places to network and mingle for the events sector is the IMEX fair in Frankfurt. This last June that’s where the Grimaldi teams created a stir unwrapping the first realization of what the future holds with the ability to exploit this new 50% increase in the Grimaldi Centre exposition capacity.

2025 will soon be upon us, almost like the blink of an eye in planning terms …so it’s not enough to bask in the sun at the impact a combination of the existing and new space has the potential of having on an expectant market. 

The time remaining has to be exploited for intense detailed preparation so as not to disappoint. Role-playing of how to optimize managing these additional spaces and dove-tailing their operation with the existing Centre must take place with a sense of urgency. Change invites new concepts and creative thinking. It’s an important transformation where nothing can be left to chance.

A New Hotel on the Horizon? 

There’s a chain effect as the Grimaldi Centre grows and there are bigger conventions and many more visitors to Expos. Where are they all going to stay when the Principality’s hotels are already often at full capacity during convention time with the current typically successful Grimaldi offering. 

There’s going to be a need, to go hand in hand with new larger Expos, for more hotel space. We don’t expect the finest hotels like the Belle Epoque Hotel de Paris, Hermitage and Metropole to rise upwards with many more floors. 

So in the Principality where is there space to put a new hotel or significantly increase hotel capacity? That’s a key question that the city planners have to huddle to solve. Having visitors to the Expos and Conventions spread too far out would not be the optimal solution. 

The Helter-Skelter Global Economy

One needs strong nerves to be on the front-line for booking conventions. Resting on your laurels is dangerous even though this September in the Principality business is shaping up to be busy with LuxePack, the Assises de la Sécurité and Sportel. 

Many entertainment events in Europe have had fans excitedly overbooking early and then taking advantage of generous refund policies to not turn up on a whim or on a Covid alarm, for example. 

Bookings for big Exhibitions and Conventions have the opposite pattern. In topsy-turvy economic times companies react almost at the last minute. So convention centres can have large potential bookings that still need final confirmation. So early autumn can be jam-packed with certainty while later months remain subject to finalization. 

It’s a minefield that requires strong nerves to be as successful as Grimaldi. And as the saying goes “When it rains it pours” …in which case there can be a late surge of bookings and then all hands on deck to make the visitors to the Principality’s conventions delighted with their experience.