Venue spotlight |
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bespoke website and can make off site venue bookings for private dining, social gatherings and fringe meetings.
• The Intershell Group knows the venue inside out and provides clients with a range of technical and operational services skills, including floor plans, electrics, furniture hire and shell scheme stands to suit a variety of event needs.
• South West Trains, the rail carrier, offers discounted rates to and from Bournemouth, which is just one hour, 45 minutes from London.
• BH Live Active is a unit that packages tailor-made experiences for delegates, pre and post conference. These include yoga on the beach, Nordic walking wind down sessions.
Associations and industry organisations Bournemouth International Centre is not just a partner to local businesses and organisations but plays an active role as a member of several meeting and events industry organisations in the UK, including the Association of Event Venues, the Meeting Industry Association( the BIC is MIA accredited) and the National Arenas Association( NAA).
The management team believes that actively participating in the work of these organisations allows all teams across the spectrum of the customer journey – from sales, to event planning to venue operations and technical, to hospitality – to exchange knowledge
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and experience with their peers in this specialist sector. Memberships are also vital for keeping up-to-date with current industry legislation and having access to top research and resources, as well as playing a part in advocating for the events industry which drives so much economically and socially in society.
Event mix and market trends BIC reports that its event portfolio continues to diversify, with a noticeable rise in charity dinners and medical conferences / exhibitions in 2025.
The team tells CMW that, due to an increase in shorter lead-time enquiries( 3 – 6 months), they have introduced a Day Delegate Rate for the newly refurbished Purbeck Lounge & Bar. It is now open to the smaller meetings market of 40 – 120 delegates and offers value as well as new levels of comfort.
So what do the clients say? Conference manager for The Green Party, praised the BIC’ s“ wonderful location by the beach, combined with the accessibility of the venue spaces and warm welcome from the venue staff, make Bournemouth a very popular conference destination with our members.”
And from the centre of the political spectrum, there was more appreciation from the head of conferences and events for the Liberal Democrats:“ We have been working with the BIC for our conference for many years. The events team are very professional, supportive and flexible to our requests. The variety of event space means that our
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Left: Refurbished and modernised spaces |
auditorium, exhibition, smaller events and dinners can all be catered for under the same roof. We could not run such a complicated multi-day event without their great team.”
And with National Health Service oganisations providing a large client pool for the venue, the CEO of the British Society of Echocardiography, Joanne Sopala, says:“ Working in, and in support of, the NHS can feel relentless, which is why coming together to give people the time and space to think and reignite their passions for echocardiography is so important. Bournemouth provided the breath of fresh air we all needed.”
As well as being part of a charity trust itself, the BIC also welcomes charity conferences.“ We were delighted to host our Farewell Weekend at the BIC. The space allowed us to welcome over 2,000 visitors and run additional fundraising activities in support of the children’ s hospice,” is the endorsement from the events manager at Julia’ s House Charity.
Another key focus for BIC’ s investment effort is sustainabilty, where BH Live has achieved Green Mark certification, demonstrating a strong adherence to internationally recognised environmental standards.
A robust Environmental Strategy Management Plan underpins all operations and initiatives include reducing carbon footprint, minimising material use, and improving recycling and waste management.
BH Live’ s target is to be net zero carbon by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2035.
More than 5,000 honey bees have been rehomed in two hives on BIC’ s rooftop thanks to local charity Bee Mission 500.
The bees share half of the BIC’ s roof space with solar panels and all the energy generated by them feeds back into the building, thanks to a partnership with Empower. All other BIC grid electricity comes from renewable sources. n
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