I haven't seen Monona Terrace so much as a tourist as a conference and wedding attendee. I've been there several times and I must conclude that there really is nothing terribly special about this place, aside from the beautiful semi-circular rooms that face Lake Monona. I have found myself noshing in that space with a bunch of strangers talking about economic development or education or some other topic of enlightened discussion. It's nice, but it's a conference center. It doesn't rise above its genre.
The rooms where the majority of meetings take place at this conference center, however, are pretty terrible. Oddly shaped, poor acoustics, just ill suited for their purpose. One time I sat in a room shaped like a long rectangle trying to listen to a keynote speaker placed right in the middle of one of the long walls. Most people were left to crane their necks just to see the guy. The food wasn't really all of that either.
Moreover, I find it rather humorous that Madison chose to call this a "conference and community center," when, like other conference centers, there is a person stationed at the entrance whose job it is to keep you out of there if you have no "official" reason to be there. Not very democratic for a "community center."
One time I also attended a concert on the roof of the Monona Terrace. It was a nice setting, but the band was horrible. Almost unlistenably bad.