Founded nearly 2,000 years ago, Frankfurt is the bustling, modern financial hub of both Germany and of the European Union. Dozens of major international financial institutions, such as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, German Federal Bank, and European Central Bank, are among the entities that keep the meeting and event venues in Frankfurt busy with meetings, conferences and trade shows.
In fact, Frankfurt has been hosting trade fairs – specialized events designed to encourage trade between communities and countries – for nearly 900 years. The renowned Frankfurt Trade Fair, founded in 1150, is the world's largest and oldest publicly owned trade organization. Nowadays, the city hosts about 100 individual trade fairs a year, comprising every type of product, service, industry and technological discipline. For these and other large-scale events, Frankfurt offers the Festhalle exhibition grounds located in the west side of the city center, bracketed by the Brokenheim and Westend-South districts.
Frankfurt also serves as one of Europe's major transportation hubs: The Frankfurt Airport ranks among the world's top 10 international airports, with more than 54.2 million travelers passing through its gates in 2007. Frankfurt's central train station, the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, is the largest in Germany, serving high-speed, long-distance and regional lines.
There are more than 220 hotel venues in Frankfurt; among them luxury boutiques and well-known international brands. The Radisson Blu and Rocco Forte Villa Kennedy offer enough space to host large professional meetings. The Moevenpick Hotel is about 10 minutes walking distance to the Festhalle. Other favorites close to the Festhalle are the 4 star Hotel Cult and the Frankfurt Marriott, about 20 minutes' brisk walking distance from the Festhalle.
In addition to its traditional convention facilities, unique Frankfurt meeting venues within the city center and nearby districts range from the Alte Oper (which can host 3,700 people) to the avant-garde Cocoon Club, which offers an original blend of fine dining and club culture and can host about 1,200 guests. At the Eurotower, one of the tallest structures in the city, Living XXL features banquet seating for up to 450 guests. Among Frankfurt's truly exceptional locations is the Naturmuseum und Forschungsinstitut, located in the Westend-South district, with meeting space for up to 800 people and the ambiance of a nature museum complete with huge models of dinosaurs, elephants, whales and other creatures.
