Photo: Angela Blake Photography
The Hill Event Center’s second-floor ballroom has been the setting for
the Alabama Social Media Association’s educational meetings throughout 2011.
(See more photos of our meetings at Hill Event Center.)
By Wade Kwon
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to attend one of our five educational meetings this year, you may have discovered an event space downtown that was hiding under your nose.
We’re proud to have the Hill Event Center at the Alabama Theatre as our location sponsor this year. It’s next door to the landmark theater, with two large unique spaces for meetings, receptions, parties and other events.
I first discovered the space a couple of years ago at the Birmingham Shout gay/lesbian film festival. It made a great screening room and hangout area.
About 500 people swarmed the facility for this year’s Birmingham Restaurant Week opening night party, sampling dishes from dozens of local establishments.
For the Alabama Social Media Association, we’ve taken over the second-floor ballroom for our lunchtime educational meetings, seating up to 120 comfortably, with space leftover for reporters and bloggers, our speaker, a bar in back for serving our lunches (no liquid lunches, by the way), sponsor tables, video cameras and drop-down screen for presentations.
This ballroom is a large rectangular carpeted space with dance floor, lighting system and sound system (which is how you hear our presenter as well as our cool music mixes before and after), along with wireless Internet. To the side is a full kitchen.
The Alabama Theatre marquee is visible right outside the third-floor Loft at the Hill Event Center.
On the third floor, you’ll find the Loft, a modern cool setting unlike the traditional elegance of the ballroom. It too has a bar and plenty of room for meeting, dancing or relaxing. Plus, it has a great view of the Alabama marquee, a real showstopper at nighttime events.
We’ve worked with Jessica Cannon (@jmontanacannon), the Hill Event Center event coordinator, all year long, and it has been nothing but success after success. She hasn’t faced a problem yet that she hasn’t been able to solve for us, usually on the spot. She tells me that several parties are already booked for December, but you still have time to reserve either space (or both) for a company Christmas reception, a lunchtime meeting or other event.
One popular option, she says, is for groups to have happy hour in the Hill Event Center before walking next door to the Alabama for a movie, including the upcoming Holiday Film Series.
To find out more about the Hill Event Center at the Alabama Theatre or book an appointment to tour the facility, contact Jessica Cannon at (205) 252-2262, ext. 118, or hilleventcenter@aol.com. Or visit the website.
Wade Kwon is a co-founding board member of the Alabama Social Media Association.
Special note: Birmingham-based Books-A-Million will have Erika Napoletano’s book, “The Power of Unpopular,” available for purchase and signing at our event.
Spann, who has received national attention for his innovative use of social media to educate his audiences, will share his practical advice on using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ more effectively.
