AMBASSADOR PROGRAMMES
GLASGOW’S CONVENTIONS SUCCESS
Aileen Crawford
Head of Conventions
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Glasgow’s capability and credibility in the
global meetings marketplace is stronger than
ever before.
enabling them to persuade their own sectors
and associations to host a conference in
Glasgow.
We recently published our 2015/16 fiscal
data and we had an incredible year, reporting
£141 million in conference revenue secured
for future years – that equates to 513 new
international and UK conventions and some
420,000 delegate days through to 2022;
reflecting our best ever annual return.
Glasgow is a great example of a city that
understands the relevance of its knowledge
hub economy.
Those results demonstrate the continuing
importance of our city partnerships, with the
likes of the SECC, NHS Greater Glasgow
and Clyde, the private sector and the city’s
universities – for example, nearly 80% of all
overseas delegates visiting Glasgow in 2015
came through the SECC.
It also shows the strength of the Glasgow
Conference Ambassador Programme
– almost half (49%) of all the business
booked last year was led by an ambassador
compared to just 30% two years previous.
Managed by GCMB, the programme supports
in excess of 1,700 active ambassadors –
drawn from the city’s academic, scientific,
medical and business communities –
15
In 2015/16, nearly half (48%) of all conference
business confirmed to Glasgow for future
years was in our key economic sectors of life
sciences, medical, energy, sustainability, low
carbon industries, engineering, financial and
business services – which represents 10%
growth on the previous year.
The importance of our ambassadors in that
cannot be understated. They are experts
within their specific industries and working
closely with them ensures that we are
aware of the trends and latest research
developing in their fields. As our year-end
figures show, understanding the value of
those developments for conference planners
is driving Glasgow’s – and Scotland’s –
competitive advantage.