Dec. 31--ALBANY -- Every year, 2,500 school board members from across the state gather for their annual convention -- but never in the capital city.

Convention organizers describe the existing Empire State Convention Center as too small and open to the public, and they hope to see the proposed $325 million Albany Convention Center built. But they also caution it has to be done right in a competitive market -- with enough hotel rooms and covered paths to keep delegates happy.

Many state associations rotate their meetings between Buffalo, Rochester and New York City but avoid Albany, said John A. Giordano, who runs a Latham-based firm that plans large meetings.

"They are going to be the first people to line up to book the building," said Giordano, president of Plaza Meetings.

Of some 175 statewide associations, he said, about 25 attract too many people to bring here.

"The center is going to do very well in the spring and the fall because everyone does great in the spring and fall," he said. "If you're going to be in the winter meeting game, you have to take into account the weather. We can't just look at the building. We have to look at everyone getting to that building comfortably."

Tim Kremer, executive director of the state School Boards Association, would love to bring his 2,500 delegates to Albany.

"There really is not a suitable location," he said. "We have, for years, rotated between Buffalo and Rochester."

Now the association has a multiyear commitment in New York City through 2010. After that, it intends to rotate again among cities throughout the state.

"We'd love to have Albany if there was an attractive convention center with appropriate meeting rooms and an appropriate exhibit center," he said.

Duncan Stewart, executive director of the Albany Convention Center Authority, said those concerns are part of the planning.

The design calls for a colonnade extending from the roof of the center's front, over the curb, allowing people to enter and exit while remaining dry.

A 400-room Sheraton Hotel is planned as part of the convention center project, but planners say the center itself will need to attract conventions of 2,000 to 2,500. Nearby hotels may agree to allow some rooms to be booked, Giordano said, but they lose food and beverage sales to meetings held elsewhere and will give priority to events in their own spaces.

"The Crowne Plaza was built to stand on its own," he said. "They built their own ratio of meeting space. They keep the food and beverage revenue. If events are at the center, they'd lose that revenue."

Kremer agreed that adequate hotel space is needed nearby.

"A big part of why we we went to New York City was we were able to position our convention where our activities could be under one roof or across the street," he said. "If you can avoid having to transfer people on buses, that's huge. What I've heard described to us in Albany, it would not be enough hotel space."

By 2014, the center expects to fill 73,000 room nights a year -- with one-third of them outside the convention hotel.

"We should be spinning off 23,000 room nights a year," Stewart said.

The planners agreed the current Empire State Plaza Convention Center is an unsuitable location for conventions.

"It's a public space. You can't offer any group any privacy or any security," Giordano said. "It has no access to natural light. The meeting rooms are not well-designed."

"We have a need for significant trade-show space," Kremer said. "That is not an appropriate place for us to display what we need to display." O'Brien can be reached at 454-5096 or by e-mail at tobrien@timesunion.com.

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