CITY CELEBRATES CONFERENCE STATUS COUP
Liverpool has been named as one of the world’s most desirable cities to host a conference, according to the industry ‘bible’.
Following the opening of the Arena & Convention Centre at King’s Dock, the city has broken into the world’s top 100 conference venues for the first time -and is now ranked higher than New York, Moscow, Auckland, Venice and Bonn.
The city rose an astonishing 44 places in its year as European Capital of Culture to be ranked 86th out of 300 destinations in the league table published by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
As well as being ranked in the top 100 – Liverpool has broken into Europe’s top 50 and is now in the UK’s top five as a major conference destination.
Liverpool’s ranking in 2007 was 130th – in 2006 it was 245th – and today city leaders said the they aim to be in the world’s top 50 by 2012.
To gain its ranking, Liverpool City Region hosted 18 events that met the following ICCA criteria:
· An event must attract a minimum of 50 delegates
· An event must take place regularly (i.e. every year/four years) and not be an ad hoc event
· An event must rotate between at least three different countries
It is estimated Liverpool’s Arena & Convention Centre contributed £200million to Liverpool’s economy in its first year in 2008. The venue, which comprises the 11,000 seater Echo Arena and the BT Convention Centre, saw 700,000 people pass through its doors in the first 12 months.
Highlights of this year’s conference programme, announced so far, include blue chip conferences including the Royal College of General Practitioners, The TUC Congress, The NHS Confederation and The Association of British Neurologists.
For the full ICCA 2008 report go to:
http://www.iccaworld.com/cnt/docs/2008-Statistics-Report-CountryCity-Rankings.pdf