Discover the building where world leaders meet

Today, 20 of the most powerful people in the world will meet at the ExCeL conference centre in Docklands, but what's on tomorrow? What event could possibly follow such a vital meeting of world powers? Oh right, a get-rich-quick self help seminar run by a weird looking American man.


Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of ExCeL, where no event is too big or small, nothing too exciting or mundane, as long as you're willing to part with the cash. ExCeL was opened in late 2000, covers a 100 acre site in the Royal Docks area of Docklands, and was built by the same construction company that built the Dorchester Hotel, the original Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Dome, the Eden Project and the Millennium Bridge.

Nowadays, the hall plays host to hundreds of events for business and the public and today Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitry Medvedev, Hu Jintao and others will meet under the same roof which usually hosts events like the London Boat Show, the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, the British Motor Show and Grand Designs Live.

So if you want to know what's coming up at ExCeL, have a look at the website at http://www.excel-london.co.uk/whatson. Either that, or wait until the 2012 Olympics when it will host the boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

Click here to see the location on a map.

_{^Picture from Wikipedia under Wikimedia Commons^}