Iconic Eikon
Northern Ireland ’ s biggest events venue is looking forward to their busiest ever year . Eikon Exhibition Centre ’ s commercial director , Theresa Morrissey , and sales and business development executive , Shona Ayre , told Emily Wallin that they are looking forward to a full diary
What should organisers expect from Eikon as a venue in 2022 ? Shona Ayre : We are Northern Ireland ’ s largest events venue . We have more than 14,000 sqm of indoor space and purpose built our infrastructure .
We host a large number of diverse events . Trade and consumer show – our biggest event is the Balmoral festival in May and we hope that this year we ’ ll be back to our normal audience with anticipated numbers of 100,000 .
One of our most unique selling points is we are the largest venue . But we can adapt that space . Events can come to us , starting off small and grow . As their event grows , the space can grow .
When we opened , the venue had 5,100 sqm of indoor space . Then in 2018 we doubled the space and the number of trade shows we have doubled as well , which is fantastic . There was that demand and we were able to deliver . Theresa Morrissey : Certainly , there ’ s an appetite for large indoor events in Northern Ireland . With our indoor space , and 55 acres of outdoor space it ’ s a really exciting time for us . There are so many events people wanted to bring to Northern Ireland but there wasn ’ t the venue here to host it . There ’ s a lot of conversations going on at the minute .
Tell us about some of Eikon ’ s most important shows ? SA : Our biggest event is the Balmoral Show , then we also have machinery trade show and a number of sporting championships , both national and international . We work a lot with UCAS , the university admissions organisation , they are here year on year which is fantastic . We have the Belfast Championship dogs show , which is a Crufts qualifier and the Winter Fair trade show .
We go from butchery , to plant machinery to cars -a hugely diverse range of different shows . TM : It ’ s exciting for us and nice to meet all the different organisers . With the events being so diverse , the organisers are diverse as well . Some of them may be volunteer committees right through to large international organisers .
We try to pride ourselves on treating each client on an individual basis and meeting their needs and expectations as much as possible . Some touring shows for example want to do exactly what they ’ ve done in another venue , whereas we have some organisers come in and this will be the one event they have this year and they want it to be just as successful . SA : We had new event in autumn , Skills Summit , that was their first event in Northern Ireland . That was really at the start of exhibitions reopening . They ’ ll be back this year and 2023 which is great . That ’ s a really great example of taking that leap and it being successful for everyone .
What ’ s the team like at Eikon ? TM : We have a relatively small team . Myself , Shona , our marketing manager and an operations team of six people plus a venue manager who would be on site for the duration of an event . Beyond that we would use lot of contracted in staff . SA : We are very much a close-knit team . We work closely together at the venue and organisers appreciate that and we work closely with them . We have really good working relationships with them and it ’ s nice that year on year all of us can refer back to what they ’ ve done previous years .
February — 35