San Mateo County Event Center

This place is HUGE!
Came her this past Sunday for the Maker Faire Bay Area 2016 event. No parking near the event. I did notice a small section right outside for special «VIP» parking and a teeeeeeny tinnnnyyy lot with a sign that said $ 35 for parking. That’s as much as the ticket for the event.
Lucky for me, I am smart cookie. I looked up the parking info online. WHICH BY THE WAY, is not easy to find on the Maker Faire website. Please fix that! You can’t just say parking details to come as we get closer to the event and then not send us any info. Anyway, there are a couple parking lots that they set up where parking is FREE and they offer FREE shuttling to the event. We decided to park in the Oracle lot and take the «red» shuttle to Maker Faire! The ride was awesome. We were in these nice luxurious shuttles. Nicest I’ve ever been on. Leather seats and tray tables. This was the only lot with the pretty shuttles. The other lots had the standard yellow field trip busses.
We started exploring right away. Drone racing was realllyyy cool. We didn’t get to see the battleships fight because the show was at 1pm and we totally did not make it back in time. I really liked the start up area! 3D printers eeerrryryyywhuuurrr. I 3D printed a cat ring from a company called Toybox:

I wish we had started in the darkroom with all the lights and things, but there were a lot of children everywhere and we wanted to be courteous to them. This is a great place for kids to get interested in many different things.
The vendor section was probably my favorite thing about the maker faire. So many cute designs!
Lots of food options. Come in comfy shoes. Lots of walking!

I’ve only been here for Maker Faire — it’s a pretty big facility and seems to be pretty well organized. Parking is close to the buildings but there’s plenty of neighborhood parking if you don’t mind walking to save the expense.

It gets the job done, but it is outdated. The restrooms are in major need of a remodel.

i’ve come here for many events since moving to the bay area and this is a great central location with the real estate to host a variety of different functions, including the very popular maker faire, which takes place every spring.
i’ve attended the ultimate women’s expo twice, and all of the vendors filled up the space nicely, along with some stages to allow presenters to demonstrate their craft and attendees to sit and listen.
i’ve also attended a couple of job fairs here and they had a nice set up where ample walking space was allowed in between rows of perspective employers so that we, the candidates, could walk around and speak to these employers, asking questions, networking, etc.
since i’m not a big fan of the $ 10 event parking fee, cash only, i usually drive a few blocks to the residential area, and park on the street since parking is free there (sometimes it’s timed, so you have to check if you choose this option).

This review is for for the 2015 Aloha Festival. This makes our 3^rd of 4^th time attending the Aloha Festival in San Mateo. Although the previous site at The Presidio was nice because it was outside the outside made it difficult to walk on the uneven terrain. It was also lacking in shade, places to sit and toilets.
The SM County Event Center is a perfect venue to handle the crowds featuring a huge indoor
space for vendors selling clothing, Hawaiian snacks and cookies, comforters and much much more. There is also an outdoor pavilion featuring music and dancers performing Hawaiian and Tahitian dancers. There is also a large area near the outdoor pavilion with food including shaved ice.
We arrived around 2pm. Not enough time to enjoy the vendors, dance and musical performances and food. Next year we’ll go earlier.
Admission was free but the parking cost $ 10 cash. I’m glad they mentioned this in their’website. I also noticed there were several ATM’s a necessity since many of the food places were cash only.
The best part was the people watching. I think every Asian and Pacific Islander group was represented as well as the Bay Area collection of folks from all over the globe. I loved seeing this mis of the world plus all the family dynamics.
I loved the shared feeling that people were there to enjoy themselves and have FUN!
I also think that many people felt the way I did — like we were getting a visit to the Islands without actually having to go there.

This place host tons of events used to come here a lot for hot import nights or hot import days, came here for maker faire and would come for the county fair

Was going to attend Maker Faire until I scoured the internet to find out that San Mateo County gouge for parking on top of already overpriced event tickets. It’s notably a detail missing from all the event info as well as from the event center as best i could tell. Very deceptive and with no alternative free parking in this den of civil enforcement imho, and I’ll be boycotting this one thank you very much. My orders from my SO were to find a fine restaurant and then my day out would have been authorized — so I save on two fronts and $an mateo and their local businesses lose twice. Downtown also has no free parking till after 6pm I see, so $an mateo appears to becoming just as visitor unfriendly as san francisco with it’s 24÷7÷365 parking meters — I’d have to blowout a tire or have a medical emergency to stop in either place.

One thing I don’t like about the event grounds is that they don’t have shaded parking structures. They event center hosted the SF flower and garden show which was pretty awesome. The bathrooms are easily located and fairly clean, parking was a bit expensive but its the bay area so that’s expected. There was many rooms that held various seminars and activities and everything was nice. The workers there are also doing a great job keeping the place tidy and presentable.

If you are a volleyball parent you will understand why I like this place. The buildings give plenty of room for not only the courts but for bystander viewing. In addition… you can find parking!!! You will not always be by the front door but who cares? The fact that you can park, your team can have a space for pop ups and tailgating, and you don’t feel like a sardine all day is fabulous in the world of back to back to back to back VB games/​tourneys. Oh… bathrooms. Yes, the fact that you aren’t standing in line for an hour is a definite plus. I’m I fan of this facility.

Ok place, I go there for the jewelry show. I’m glad they got rid of over-​priced food company: Ovation or whatever. I used to have to pay $ 3 for a drink, no refills and a pretzel for I think $ 5. Yeah. The parking is a bitch, not only do you pay 10 bucks, you also have to pay 10 bucks to enter the building too.

They gouge you for parking. I’m still resentful about the $ 10 that I spent parking last week for an event that I didn’t go to. Growing up in this area, I’ve gone to the San Mateo Event center numerous times for all sorts of events. Although they charge for parking, there is lots of it.
They have some food inside, often events held here have separate food vendors but the permanent ones here offer choices like nachos and hotdogs, ball park type stuff.
There are bathrooms in every building and they get messy but these events here can become very crowded!

Came here the other day for the Tom’s warehouse sale. Parking for the event center is $ 10. I heard it was better to find parking outside but I was alone and didn’t wanna find parking and then walk to find the building, so I paid the fee and parked and walked super quickly because I saw a huge line. I got lucky because I hopped in line while one group was let in and I waited in line another 30 minutes until I was let in. They gave us colored wristbands by group and you have 45 minutes to shop. The building the sale was in was big and had enough room for all the boxes of shoes. The ventilation wasn’t that good because I was sweating like crazy! But then again there were tons and tons of people! Overall this is a good place for a sale of that size.

This is a huge place and really nice facility to have a sports tournament; specifically volleyball for my experience. I was impressed with how much parking there was, how easy it was to find, and quick you could get in and out. There’s not a lot of food concession options but I was more into the tailgating anyway.

My sister-​in-​law and I came here to attend the San Francisco Flower and Garden show in March. This is my third year attending the Flower Show every year and I really enjoy it!
Expo Hall was incredible with the display gardens and awesome shopping booths. I swear, that building seems like it’s getting bigger every time I walk through it. The Event Center usually creates a nice wine garden where you can buy a glass of wine to sip and enjoy as you walk around to look at the gardens. We had my 2-​month old nephew with us so we didn’t splurge on the wine but we saw lots of people sipping and smiling as they walked around. What a nice touch. I was thrilled to see the fabulous Vulcan, the steampunk nautilus that was also here for Maker Faire last year.
Fiesta Hall had plants for sale, and we purchased more plants than we have time to care for! I love to visit the Bonsai room and see all of the amazing bonsai trees on display. Some of those trees are older than I am and they are so perfectly trimmed and pruned it’s just awesome to see that kind of commitment to this art.
The Event Center just opened a new catering company recently — I noticed new uniforms and a new logo at their concessions counters. Creative Touch Catering — last time I remember it was Ovations. The food is freshly cooked to order. For lunch we shared a salad and some pasta from Expo Café. The weather was so warm and lovely the Event Center put out picnic tables on the grounds so it was like having a picnic in a lovely park!
A plus for us, there are easy to find restrooms everywhere and they are always kept so tidy and clean. Kudos to the crew for making everything so nice!

As a planner looking to throw a corporate picnic, this venue does the trick and then some! Lush green grass, trees for shade, LOTS of power to plug into and (properly labeled) restrooms for guests.
The grounds offer ample space for any installation you can dream up (reptiles, petting zoos, games, you name it!)
Just make sure you secure one of the giant halls with the roll-​up doors for your production space — you won’t regret it.
My client loved it and so did my staff. Easily fit our group (and the 200 extra guests that showed up!)
Thanks to SMEC for hosting a fantastic event and special thanks to Dana for her help in the planning process. I look forward to our next event here!

I will be coming back for Aloha Festival if it is here next year. I missed it when it used to be in the Presidio, but oh well I still had fun. Spent a grip on food and accessories. I’m officially an Island girl now!
The SMC event center has good bones for events like this, plus plenty of room left over for a personal party with friends. You’ll have to convince SECURITY, but after that you might be alright!

Came here for the County Fair, came her for the Import Car show and even came here for motorcycle demos. The prices of parking goes up each time. And like the county fair, there was really nothing to see. I had paid $ 8 to see a street fair.

Went here for Robogames 2013. The event center isn’t as awesome as when Robogames was at Fort Mason, but it was still cool. I didn’t really utilize any of the facilities at the center; but its fairly large and there are some nice grassy areas perfect for relaxing and eating a sandwich in the sun.
Just a suggestion: you can avoid paying event parking if you don’t mind walking a few blocks. And Whole Foods is relatively close by if you want better food choices.

Attended the — Sing Tao Expo — that was held at this event center
I was working one of the booths, so it was interesting to see the set up of the expo to the place being fully occupied and running throughout the day.
The parking was plentiful and the center was pretty large in size, there were many food vendors, goods being sold, informational booths, a music and cultural program as well.
The bathrooms and exits were easily accessible and for the amount of people in the building it didn’t get too hot or too cold.
Good venue and very spacious!

** Kawasaki Demo Event Review **
Good event but my husband was a bit let down at the fact he wasn’t able to get to test drive the ZX-​10 though.
The plan was for us to get there early but due to having to take the car in for a service we got there a bit late and all their spots were full. Not that I think getting there much earlier would have made a difference as the lady at the event we spoke to said that people were there waiting at 7:30am!
The bike did look awesome though and my hubby was glad he was able to see what it looked like in both Black and Green — he was 70% sure he wanted Black but after see them he now wants Green. Typical really, he has to go for the one that has the longest wait on as everybody else wants it too!
The staff there were really friendly and helpful too and allowed hubby to have a sit on the bike and start it up — revved it a little to the excitement of others looking.
Nice selection of bikes to look at and everybody there was really friendly and in good spirits. Plus free parking (once we managed to find it!).