Manchester
Building a sustainable events portfolio to serve the City of Manchester
UK venue Manchester Central’ s chief executive officer Lori Hoinkes outlines her strategy for smart growth
n a competitive and
I fast-evolving events landscape, venues like Manchester Central – already operating near capacity – face a critical challenge: how do we continue to grow without simply increasing volume? For us, the question became about value over volume, sustainable development over short-term wins.
We knew we needed a new approach – one rooted in research, strategic clarity, and long-term thinking. That’ s why we partnered with MBB Consulting Group to help us explore what smart, sustainable growth could look like for Manchester Central.
With our aim of adopting a destination-led approach, we took a deep, data-driven look at the region’ s unique sector strengths – what MBB refer to as our‘ Destination DNA’. Together, we mapped the economic clusters, innovation assets, academic expertise, and sector ecosystems that make Greater Manchester attractive to high-value event organisers. The result was a much clearer view of where our real competitive advantages lie – and, critically, how we could align our future event strategy with those strengths.
As a venue that sits at the very heart of the city – in terms of location and as an integral cog that drives regional growth – we have a responsibility
“ We mapped the economic clusters, innovation assets, academic expertise, and sector ecosystems that make Greater Manchester attractive to highvalue event organisers. The result was a much clearer view of where our real competitive advantages lie " to ensure that the work we do contributes directly to the strategic ambitions of our city.
One of the critical outcomes of this process was co-developing a multi-dimensional model of event‘ attractiveness’ to inform how we target and build our future pipeline. MBB worked with us through a cross-functional workshop to define and weight key factors – including alignment with regional strengths and growth ambitions as well as sustainability, impact and legacy considerations.
This gave us a structured way to test assumptions and ensure alignment across the business.
This model has since become a powerful tool for decision-making and one that will guide our business development efforts well into the future. Immediately putting this model into practice, MBB applied it in market to conduct in depth research on new, international event opportunities ready for us to consider.
The process itself also brought unexpected benefits. The workshop was more than just a planning session – it was a chance for our team to pause, reflect, and reconnect with where we’ re trying to go as a business.
Matthias Tesi Baur, CEO of MBB Consulting Group says:“ We thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth process and the opportunity to work closely with Manchester Central and their partners. I was particularly impressed by the venue’ s commitment to taking a holistic, strategic approach – one that truly considers how to serve the city in a meaningful and sustainable way.”
This project was incredibly important to us – not just in shaping our strategy, but in ensuring we back future opportunities with robust data and insight. Working in partnership with MBB, with input from partners across the city, was a genuinely collaborative experience, and it reinforced our shared commitment to delivering lasting value for Manchester. EW www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 4 2025 47