Hello everyone!
We are absolutely thrilled to share the next step for Anthro New England. For next year’s convention in 2027, we are officially expanding to become a two-hotel convention! We are proud to announce our partnership with the Omni Boston at the Seaport, which will serve as our second main hotel alongside the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel.
By splitting our event spaces between these two wonderful venues, we are unlocking much-needed room to grow and spread out. The Omni is incredibly excited to welcome each and every one of you, and this expansion allows us to vastly improve the convention experience. Major improvements include relocating the Vendor Hall and Registration to a larger space to reduce crowding, as well as the addition of large panel rooms to accommodate our higher attendance panels. We expect this dual-hotel setup will give everyone much needed room to breathe and relax within our convention spaces.
The Omni is located directly across the street from the Westin. To ensure your commute between venues is safe, quick and easy, we are arranging crosswalk assistance to help guide our attendees safely across the street. For those with accessibility concerns – the Omni offers additional accessible guestrooms, and the street crossings are level and divided with a median.
We can’t wait to welcome you all through the doors of both the Omni and Westin for 2027. Please read on for our FAQ about this announcement below to see exactly what this expansion means for your experience with us in Boston.
As always, we are listening to your feedback – please feel free to write to us at [email protected] with any questions, suggestions, or concerns – we are always looking to improve.
Sincerely,
Anthro New England
Frequently Asked Questions
How will attendees get between the Westin and the Omni?
The hotels are located directly across Summer Street from one another, and connected by two convenient crosswalks. To make your journey safe and easy, we will be providing crosswalk assistance to help manage traffic and safely guide attendees between the two convention spaces. For those with accessibility concerns, the street crossing is level, and both hotels are fully accessible.
Where is the Vendor Hall going?
It will be relocating across the street to the Omni! Relocating the Vendor Hall to the Omni will allow a slightly larger space, with a much larger, dedicated space for queues and crowd management. The Art Show will be relocated into a space nearby to allow better spacing of both vendors and artists.
What else is going to be at the Omni?
In addition to the Vendor Hall, the Omni will feature headless lounge spaces, high capacity panel rooms, and its own Zoo! We also have a significant amount of additional event space available to us at the Omni, and we look forward to announcing the final floorplans as we get closer to the convention next January.
What is changing at the Westin?
With the Vendor Hall moving out the Westin, this will allow Registration to move downstairs into the Galleria Ballroom. This allows us to use the full space of the Galleria as queue capacity and allow additional registration kiosks, which will help keep lines from overflowing into the Westin’s lobby and entrance area. The Marina Ballroom, formerly used for Registration, will be made available for other use, stay tuned for a final floorplan closed to the event dates. We are also thrilled to announce the return of the Zoo at the Westin’s Commonwealth Ballroom!
Is that all that’s changing?
Our 2027 event layout is still being finalized, but what we’ve stated above is what we can announce at this time. Please keep an eye on our socials for future announcements or changes, as well as the event map (typically released in December).
How will hotel booking work? Will the other overflow hotels return?
For 2027, we will initially open the room blocks for the two main hotels, the Westin and Omni on the same weekend. Once these main blocks sell out, we will proceed to open the Aloft and Element hotels. From there, we will continue to open our other partner hotels as needed.
Will Vendors book early? What hotel will they be offered?
As with previous years, vendors are provided early booking access for our convention! Vendors will be offered to book rooms at the Omni Boston at the Seaport hotel as it is the location of the Vendor Hall for ANE 2027, but if a vendor requests the Westin, we would be happy to accommodate!
Why not the MCEC? Is ANE ever moving to the Convention Center?
We are continuously working with the convention center to expand into the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center (MCEC)’s space as future schedules permit. Currently, existing event contracts during our future dates prevent us from securing the space through the end of 2027.
