Birmingham’s vast venue variety on show at International Confex

From a golf course to a castle, the city’s official business tourism programme Meet Birmingham will be taking its most diverse mix of event venues to this year’s International Confex, the country’s leading events industry exhibition.

Meet Birmingham will welcome six partners – The Belfry, Conference Aston, the International Convention Centre (ICC), thestudio, venuebirmingham and Warwick Castle – to stand K182 at London’s ExCeL on 19-21 March. The Meet Birmingham team will also launch its popular annual Meet Conference Guide, which offers a complete and detailed listing of the venues, facilities and services available to event organisers across Birmingham and the wider region.

Ian Taylor, Commercial Director at Marketing Birmingham, the city’s strategic marketing partnership which operates Meet Birmingham, said: “There is no substitute for meeting face-to-face with event organisers and trade shows like this have proven to be an instrumental tool for lead generation. 2012’s event played a key role in Birmingham securing a two-year deal to host the UK’s largest paediatric conference, expected to generate over £4 million of additional spending into the city’s economy.

“Together with our varied selection of partners, we will be using International Confex to highlight the reasons behind Birmingham maintaining its status among industry professionals as the UK’s top events location outside London.”

Joining Meet Birmingham at this year’s exhibition is venuebirmingham, which boasts one of the newest multi-million pound concert performance, conference, meetings and events venues in the country – the Bramall Music Building. The new landmark building accompanies properties including Winterbourne House & Garden and The Great Hall on the University of Birmingham’s campus. Another of Meet Birmingham’s academic partners, Conference Aston, will also be present to showcase its portfolio of two purpose built conference centres, 30 meeting rooms and a 163 bedroom hotel.

Adding a unique, grand and historic flavour to the line-up this year is Warwick Castle, with spectacular surroundings for conferences, dinners and team building. The Belfry, also steeped in history and heritage and the home of golf’s Ryder Cup on four occasions, offers 22 conference and meeting rooms, as well as 324 bedrooms within 550 acres of North Warwickshire countryside.

One of Europe’s leading conference and events venues, The ICC welcomes over 300,000 national and international delegates each year to its 10 halls and 10 executive meeting rooms at the heart of the city centre. The venue hosted its third Conservative Party Conference in five years in 2012. Also within walking distance of the city’s New Street station, thestudio has 15 cutting edge, flexible event spaces for up to 200 guests.

Meet Birmingham works with over 200 business tourism partners in the city and wider region. Other venues exhibiting at International Confex include Fazeley Studios, the NEC, Warwick Conferences, Clarendon Suites, Town Hall Symphony Hall, Ricoh Arena, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Wroxall Abbey.

[otw_is sidebar=otw-sidebar-1]