Events Throughout the Years

The Los Angeles Convention Center has hosted thousands of events in its first 50 years. These range from massive citywide conventions to small community gatherings and everything in between. The facility has been called home to world-renowned trade shows, conventions, consumer shows, meetings and assemblies.  We have also been transformed into a press center, pop-up museum, filming location, and courtroom, just to name a few.  We share some notable events below. 

• The California Gift Show was the first event to take place at the newly opened LACC in 1971, quickly followed by the Southern California Boat Show and WESTEC.
• Ski Dazzle has been the longest running annual show at the LACC, having hosted their first event here in 1971.
• In 1977, LACC welcomed the LA Auto Show and the show has been at the facility ever since.
• Also in 1977, the Soviet National Exhibition brought 310,000 visitors and hundreds of anti-communist protestors to LACC. Exhibits included the Soyuz spacecraft.  According to an LACC audit, all of the Center’s vacuum cleaners “defected” at the close of the expo.
• President Jimmy Carter visited the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1977. From a podium in Yorty Hall, President Carter spoke to a delegation of 5,000 attendees at the National Convention for the United Auto Workers (UAW).
• LACC’s 10 millionth visitor, Greg Young, arrived to visit the Boat Show in 1980.
• MAGIC “Men’s Apparel Guild in California” added three temporary structures, known as the “Bubbles,” to increase exhibit space for their show on Figueroa Frontage in 1980.  Five additional bubbles were added in 1983 providing a total of 140,000 square feet of exhibit hall space.
• The LACC served as the Main Press Headquarters for 8,000 journalists covering the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in 1984.
• The International Los Angeles Art Fair, produced by Andry Montgomery out of London, was held at LACC from 1985 to 1993. Their annual gala was a major star studded event.  More recently, the prestigious LA Art Show arrived at the LACC in 2009, now the largest art fair on the West Coast.
• The inaugural E3 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1995 and has returned on annual basis.
• In 1996, LACC was the first stop on a two-year nationwide tour celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the Smithsonian Museums.  Over 400,000 people came to see “America’s Smithsonian” during it 31-day run.
• LACC served as the world press headquarters for the 2000 Democratic National Convention nominating Al Gore.
• In 2004, The Grammy Awards pre-telecast ceremony and official “Celebration” party for 7,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences moved to its new home in West Hall.
• In 2006, MusiCares, the Grammy Foundation Person of the Year dinner and concert, moved to the LACC.  Honorees include Aretha Franklin (2006), Barbra Streisand (2011) Paul McCartney (2012) and Aerosmith (2020).
• The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences first hosted the 60^th Annual Emmy Awards Governors Ball in West Hall in 2008. Since then, the official post-Emmy Awards party has become an annual event at LACC.
• Anime Expo opened in 2008. A tremendous success right out of the gate, the expo has become one of the LACC’s most heavily attended annual events.
• Stan Lee’s Comic Con, later known as LA Comic Con, came to the Convention Center in 2011. 
• To compliment concerts held at Staples Center and LA Live, BET Experience came to LACC in 2013.
• Celebrating Korean pop culture and music, KCON was first held at LACC in 2015 in conjunction with a series of KPOP concerts at The Staples Center