Jamie B.
Yelp
I recently attended a convention at this facility and was wowed by the beautiful construction. The exterior looks like a graceful sandcrawler under a wide, Texas sky, which was fitting since I was there for a Star Wars convention. For the size of the event, Fan Days, the center was a good fit. There were enough merchants to fill out the halls, there was enough parking in the garage to accommodate cars, even when you left and returned. Unfortunately, there is no parking re-entry, so you pay twice if you need to leave and get a real meal.
While it is nice that they also offer concessions inside, they were pretty expensive and not that great. There aren't many options for vegetarians if you are trying to stay on site for a meal. There's an expensive personal pan pizza, nachos with black beans, and grilled cheese (only if the second floor shop is open). I tried the pizza. Waited about 20 minutes while the kitchen seemed in total disarray over their ordering and divvying process during lunch time, and my plain cheese pizza finally came out cold with a thick layer of raw dough lurking under the sauce. It turned out that the cashier forgot to put in the order for my cheese pizza originally, thus enters the Seinfeld "you can take the reservation but you don't know how to fill the reservation" joke. Oh well. If you are getting a hot dog, you probably won't have the same problems.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience at the Irving Convention Center. The larger ballrooms were quite expansive and a good place to house Q&As. It wasn't clear if the technology equipment was in-house or brought by the company sponsoring Fan Days, but there weren't any tech hiccups and audio and visual displays for the events were good. Seating in the ballrooms was comfortable too.