Tacoma (pron.: /təˈkoʊmə/, US dict: tə·kō′·mə) is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of around 1 million people.
The Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center (GTCTC), is a convention center in downtown Tacoma, in the U.S. state of Washington. It opened in November 2004 and has been described as the "second largest meeting and event facility in Western Washington". It was designed by MulvannyG2 Architecture, of Bellevue, Washington.
Located at 1500 Broadway, the center has over 118,000 square feet (11,000 m2) of meeting and usable prefunction space which includes a 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2), column-free exhibition hall, a 13,650 sq ft (1,268 m2) ballroom, and eleven breakout rooms in varying sizes. There are 400 parking spaces on-site with over 2,400 more available at Tacoma Dome Station of the Sounder commuter rail and the Tacoma Link light rail lines. Link connects the Tacoma Dome with the convention center, stopping across the street, at the Convention Center/S. 15th Street station. Buses of Pierce Transit also serve the GTCTC, with stops on nearby Pacific Avenue, as well as on Market Street and on 13th Street.