5
Leeds & Hull
Since being UK City of Culture in 2017, Hull has become
a burgeoning conference destination. What does the legacy look like?
here are few UK
destinations which have
changed as much as Hull
has over the last few
years. The city was UK City of
Culture in 2017, an accolade that
literally put it on the map (the BBC
Weather map).
The event was the starting gun on
£110m of investment in
infrastructure, business and,
crucially, events.
The Bonus Arena opened its
doors in 2018. The £36m music,
arts and conference venue includes
a 3,500 standing capacity concert
auditorium with flexible seating
which can accommodate up to
2,500. It also boasts 1,200sqm of
exhibition space, plus an
800-seater conference auditorium.
Elsewhere, K2 is a new £7m
multipurpose space in the heart of
the city with 13 floors of combined
use. The venue includes a business
centre, serviced offices and
apartments, leisure outlets,
dedicated space for meetings and
events as well as a roof terrace
providing 360 panoramic views of
the city.
Right:
Holy Trinity Church reflected
in the windows of an office
block on the opposite side
Left:
Sunset over the Humber
bridge, Hull
Hull has seen a boom in hotel
inventory, too. The £25m
DoubleTree by Hilton is the city’s
first branded 4-star hotel and
includes a 1,000-seat, pillar-free
conference and events space, as
well as 165 bedrooms, rooftop bar
and Marco Pierre White restaurant.
City wide investments also
include a major refurbishment of
Hull New Theatre, Ferens Art Gallery
and Hull Minster. The Hull New
Theatre re-opened with a
spectacular Royal Ballet Gala
performance and since their
respective transformations the
Ferens Art Gallery has welcomed
the prestigious annual art award
The Turner Prize, while Hull Minster
has hosted The Turner Prize Award
ceremony dinner attended by over
200 guests.
University of Hull has recently
completed several refurbishment
projects including a £7m makeover
of its dining and conferencing
facilities and a £9.5m
redevelopment of Middleton Hall
which includes a concert hall,
cinema and tiered conference
www.conference-news.co.uk
facilities.
Hull is the UK’s first city to
complete a rollout of ultrafast, full
fibre broadband. The £85m
investment by KCOM makes Hull
one of the country’s best-connected
city. 200,000 homes and
businesses in the region have
access to ‘ultrafast’ speeds of
1Gbps. For context, only 8% of the
country have this level of
connectivity, and the rest of the UK
can’t expect it until 2025.