The convention centre was designed by John Andrews and constructed over part of the Adelaide railway station, together with the Hyatt Regency Hotel (now the InterContinental Hotel), Exhibition Hall and an office block in the 1980s as part of the Adelaide Station and Environs Redevelopment (ASER) project.

SOM's expansion and renovation of Adelaide's Convention Centre reconnected historic parts of the city to the waterfront.

[8] Its "rational cooking system", the largest of any convention centre in the world, is equipped to serve 4,000 dinners in 20 minutes.

Making the announcement, the Premier of South Australia at the time, Mike Rann, said that work would begin that year on the first stage of the $350 million expansion abutting the Morphett Street Bridge and be completed in 2014.

Rann said Stage 2, scheduled to be completed by mid 2017, would feature a distinctive high-tech glass "arrow" structure capable of seating 3,500 people.