Venue Profile
A new
millennium
EN heads to Birmingham to
check out a venue business in
the heart of the city that gives out
millions to STEM-related causes
W
hile Millennium Point has
existed as a MICE venue for only
a matter of months, the Millennium
Point building was first opened almost
two decades ago following – you
guessed it – the turn of the millennium.
The Millennium Point building
was part of a series of building
projects across the UK celebrating the
millennium, driven by the government
and partly National Lottery funded,
which include the Millennium Dome,
the Millennium Wheel (a.k.a. the
London Eye), the Millennium Bridge
and the Tate Modern.
It now stands as the largest landmark
millennium project in England
outside of the capital and is owned
by the Millennium Point Charitable
34 —May
Trust, which funnels profits back
into supporting science, technology,
engineering and maths (STEM) related
projects, initiatives, organisations and
individuals across the West Midlands.
“Last year we donated £4.8m back
into the West Midlands, which is
considerable in one year,” Commercial
director Rebecca Delmore tells EN. “We
just ran out scholarship programme,
which is where we pay for someone to
have a STEM degree.”
The building is home to, among
others, ThinkTank (Birmingham’s
Science Museum) and Birmingham City
University, and at one point an IMAX
screen cinema.
The world of cinema’s loss is the
event industry’s gain, will the 350-seater
auditorium now open to organisers,
complete with the giant IMAX screen
still in place. It’s one of several event
spaces on offer at the venue, which
included smaller meeting suites, several
larger open plan spaces and two exterior
spaces for outdoor fairs and launches.
“We’ve launched the events business
because we want to raise as much
income as we possibly can to invest
back into the building and give to our
charitable trust,” explains Delmore.
“Everything we do is for not-for-profit,
which is why we get an awful lot of
STEM business users. People can
approach us for a donation, we would
look at the criteria and they could be
considered for funding.
“It’s one of our USPs, because it’s
unusual for somewhere in the city to
able to have a nice story behind them.”
Millennium Point has the benefit of
not only being within walking distance
of Birmingham’s main train stations but
also the platform of the upcoming HS2
trainline.
The aim for the venue at the moment,
concludes Delmore, is getting the word
out to event organisers in Birmingham
and further afield.
“We’re still very new, so a lot of
people can see our building and not
know what it is. They know it’s an iconic
building and there have been some
famous tenants, but they don’t know
that we have an amazing events space.
That’s really something we’re trying
to educate people about. The more
they support us, the more we can help
schools in the West Midlands.” EN