BELFAST WATERFRONT
BELFAST WATERFRONT making a greater contribution
Belfast Waterfront has played an instrumental role in Belfast city’ s development since opening its doors 20 years ago, and with the recent investment in doubling its event space and enhancing its technology infrastructure, it plans to make an even greater contribution to the city in the future.
Conferences galore
Belfast Waterfront’ s new 7,000m 2 stateoftheart conference facility opened on 29 April 2016 – and what a year it has been! In its first year of operation Belfast Waterfront hosted 24 major conferences, generating £ 19.6m for the local economy.
With Northern Ireland leading the way in many sectors, including life and health sciences, food and drink, as well as technology it comes as no surprise that many of the events were intrinsically linked to the regions’ specialisms.
Sixteen hundred members of the British Orthopaedic Association held their annual meeting at Belfast Waterfront. And the first ever BBC Good Food Show to be hosted in Northern Ireland was a roaring success attracting more than 14,000 consumers over three days.
With flexible space and the latest event technology, Belfast Waterfront is the‘ perfect playground’ for leading tech companies to showcase their innovations.
Last year local company, Kainos held its first annual meeting in the new facility, and Belfast will follow in the footsteps of Rome, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Athens and Hamburg in hosting one of the largest software security conferences in Europe, when OWASP AppSec EU conference arrives in the city this May.
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Thousands of delegates on their way
Looking forward, the team at Belfast Waterfront have already secured similar levels of business for 2017 / 2018 with the prospect of hosting many major conferences in future years.
Over 35,000 delegates are expected to descend upon the city this year. Why is this important? Industry studies have revealed business travellers can spend over £ 400 per night on accommodation, food and attractions in the city. And typically this type of tourist stays longer.
A leading business tourism destination
Named the trendiest European city destination for business travel by MICE and Business Travel Magazine in 2015, travellers are guaranteed an experience that ' s larger than life with many attractions, restaurants and hotels within walking distance of the Waterfront.
The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland( ASGBI) was the first event to use the extended Belfast Waterfront facilities. Bhavnita Patel, the General Manager of ASGBI, commented:“ Belfast is such a compact city, so everything was very conveniently located. We, as organisers, were not required to lay on any transport to shuttle people to and from the venue. Not even for the social events that were held in the evenings.
“ Very convenient to the venue was a complete range of hotels from basic up to 5star, so no one had a problem not only in matching their accommodation to their budget, but in finding a place within, at most, 10minutes walking distance of Belfast
Waterfront. In fact, that was a major benefit highlighted by the feedback following the event,” added Bhavnita.
Delegates also commented favourably on the number of other facilities in the locality, including restaurants, bars, cafes.’ And of course, the warm welcome shown to the delegates by the people of Belfast.“ There was a buzz in the city … Everyone made us feel genuinely welcome,” praised Bhavnita.
Catherine Toolan, Managing Director of Belfast Waterfront and Ulster Hall Ltd, is delighted with the response to the extended venue, and commented:“ Belfast Waterfront’ s 7,000m 2 conference facility is a fantastic new addition to the city’ s business tourism offering. In this very competitive industry it is important that we continue to enhance and improve our client proposition.
“ We are excited about the commitment from all stakeholders and together with Belfast Waterfront the city is transforming into a leading business tourism destination.”
MOREINFORMATION
We’ re ready to welcome you If you’ re thinking about bringing an event to the city, contact the Belfast Waterfront team today to find out how they can help you:
T: + 44( 0) 28 9033 4400 E: conference @ waterfront. co. uk W: waterfront. co. uk @ BelWaterfront / # BelfastWaterfront.