Clients always commented on features such as the fibreglass pou in the Wai Ora Spa Grand Hall, the history wall, the exterior fins and the red feature wall in the Bay Trust Forum.
But Jeffery said the physical attributes of the building, which can be divided into 10 separate spaces and host up to 5650 guests at a time, were only half the equation.
"Despite their obvious appeal, the centre's special features would be meaningless without the backing of the EEC's dedicated operations team, who provide clients with professional venue and event management services to ensure everything runs seamlessly, smoothly and without fuss."
The $28 million venue has given Rotorua a boost in the large conference market and Jeffery said one of the highlights for him had been being able to help with events, such as Meetings 2011 which had to find new locations after the February 22 earthquake put Christchurch's facilities out of action.
Rotorua Convention Bureau manager Denise Siviter said the extra capacity of the centre also created new opportunities in the association conference market, which tends to cater to large delegate numbers.
"It has allowed us to go after those conferences and in 2011 we saw growth of 122.1 per cent in that market." Siviter said this was an excellent result, especially against a national benchmark of -10.4 per cent.
Association conference business has come from within New Zealand and from Australia and other international markets and she said it also contributed to the large increase in multi-day conventions in the city last year.
"Delegate expenditure increased by 54.4 per cent - that's an increase of more than $20 million."
Siviter said total spend was estimated at between $64 million and $100 million.
FACTS & FIGURES
Since opening in March 2007, the Rotorua Energy Events Centre has hosted:
1500 events
about 30 conferences a year
10 conferences of more than 1000 delegates each
500,000 people