The Civic Centre's role as a northern conference site will now be highlighted front and centre and on the facility.
Councillors unanimously approved the staff recommendation to add "conference" into the Prince George Civic Centre's name at Monday night's meeting.
City staff asserted the centre has made a name for itself as the north's "premiere meetings and conference facility" and the only option north of Hope that has the capacity to hold them at a province-wide scale. It called the centre a "major economic driver" and said adding that key detail in the title could help the city get more business.
Staff said the name change wouldn't require much work - or cost - beyond adding the name on the building.
"We don't view it as an onerous process," staff said, adding most of the work will be done on digital documents. Changes to print materials, signage and a formal launch of the name change could be absorbed within the division's marketing budget, the report said.
"This really makes sense," said Coun. Albert Koehler, whose sentiment was echoed by other councilors.
Coun. Garth Frizzell confirmed the city still has the flexibility to pursue a building name sponsor, pointing to the example of the Prince George Coliseum renaming earlier this year to Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The goal of the renaming is to flag Prince George as an option for those in the market for conventions or conferences.
The Civic Centre opened its doors in February 1994 and the new name will "better reflect itself as a full service conference venue." It means Prince George will better appear in online searches.
It also emerged as a key recommendation from Tourism Prince George's 2014 strategic plan around developing meetings and conventions.
"The term "civic centre" has a broad definition that can imply many different purposes," the staff rationale said. Including the word "conference" in the namesake of the venue would provide greater "clarity to the diverse functionality of the facility."
Council didn't decide how that the word conference would appear in the new name and staff didn't provide any recommendations on word order.
