Venue Profile
office.
This coupled with our experienced,
friendly and helpful event management
team is the reason why 77 per cent of
organisers return each year.
An exhibition
incubator
EN takes a trip to Ricoh Arena
to learn more about the venue’s
support for new events and
utilising its ownership of the
Wasps rugby team
Tell us about the history of the venue
Ricoh Arena first opened its doors in
August 2005 and the first events held
in the Exhibition Hall were the Pixel
Trade Show and Solus Garden & Leisure
Show. The first football game was for
Coventry City’s clash with Queens Park
Rangers followed by a Bryan Adams
gig and a Bon Jovi concert in the first
year. This heralded the birth of one of
the UK’s most versatile event venues.
Wasps Rugby Club bought the venue
in December 2014, and since then have
made major investments to evolve Ricoh
Arena into the UK’s leading multi-
purpose venue.
What kind of events does Ricoh Arena
host?
In 2018, Ricoh Arena hosted over
850 events including sporting events,
exhibitions, conferences, meetings and
42 —April
music concerts.
We regularly host several varieties
of events in one week. One week we
hosted the Society of Cosmetic Surgeons
exhibition, the Jaguar Land Rover
Imagineering exhibition, the Champions
of Champions Snooker tournament and
a Catfish & The Bottlemen concert. Then
at the weekends it became home games
for Coventry City Football Club and
Wasps Rugby Club fixtures.
What is the offering for exhibition
organisers?
Our 6,000 sqm Ericsson Exhibition
Hall has no creative boundaries,
complete with retractable walls allowing
for a smaller space and ultra-fast Wi-
Fi, enabling thousands of people to
simultaneously stream content.
Around 75 per cent of UK visitors
are also within a two-hour drive of our
venue so we are the perfect location
with excellent transport links and ample
parking on-site.
We have a range of leisure and
business facilities on-site for hosting
exhibitors and visitors, including an
on-site, 121-room DoubleTree by Hilton
hotel, two restaurants, a bar and a 24-
hour casino.
We have a variety of lounges and a
public working space called the Ricoh
Business Lounge, that is ideal for
catching up on emails whilst out of the
What support can you offer event
organisers?
Through our in-house event services
team, we offer event organisers
everything required to run a successful
event, ranging from designing and
installing stands, through to providing
audio-visual equipment and managing
visitor registrations.
What is the USP of the venue?
Ricoh Arena is an incubator for new
and growing exhibitions by offering
support in all areas from adaptable space
at no extra charge to exhibition design
and build, and marketing. We utilise
our ownership by Wasps to reward our
organisers and exhibitors with free rugby
tickets for all visitors and invitations to
Wasps hospitality and music concerts.
Is there anything exciting coming up
that you’d like to highlight?
We have a bumper summer of activity
coming up which we will be opening
to exhibition clients, who can in turn
host their own clients. Catfish & The
Bottlemen kick off proceedings in May,
before the live entertainment heads into
the stadium bowl.
The Spice Girls will be performing
back-to-back dates in June before
Monster Jam comes to the venue for the
first time, followed by the Soundscape
Festival featuring headliner David
Guetta. EN