[2] The Cairns Convention Centre is owned by the Queensland State Government and has been managed and marketed by AEG Ogden since 1994.

It was Australia's first regional convention centre and the country's first environmentally designed public building, and in its opening year it won the inaugural international EIBTM's most environmentally conscious congress centre.

[5] The Convention Centre hosted preliminary rounds of the men's basketball competition at the Commonwealth Games, which was held on Queensland's Gold Coast in April 2018.

[citation needed] In 2014, the centre hosted the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting[7][8] and the Australian Tourism Exchange conference, the first time it was held in a regional destination.

[11] In 2015, it hosted the Professional Bull Riding Cairns Invitational, adding 300 tonnes of sand to the floor of Hall Two, the 25th Meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry, World Congress on Larynx Cancer, Australasian Hydrographic Symposium, Prostate Cancer World Congress, Toyota Dealer Meeting and Hilux Launch and James Cook University Graduation Ceremonies.