ConferenceLeeds is celebrating several recent venue investments, which has seen a total of over £16 million going towards improving the city’s facilities. The investments include the introduction of a learning centre at Leeds Trinity University, a brand new, high-end spa at Rudding Park and significant bedroom refurbishments at the Holiday Inn Express.

Leeds’ conferencing venues have seen investment, enhancing the city’s appeal as a business destination. The studio has undergone an expansion worth more than £170,000, which includes four new state-of-the-art event spaces, doubling its capacity and offering an alternative conferencing venue to a traditional hotel. The Malmaison Leeds has launched its new meetings and events space, Work + Play, offering four meeting rooms and two soundproof glass pods, giving delegates the flexibility to work individually or that can be combined to create a larger space. Horizon has also invested in the reconfiguration of their meeting and event space. They have maximised the potential occupancy by adding in a retractable wall to the main plenary room which now provides two fully equipped conference rooms with the latest AV technology.

Leeds’ academic venues also continue to develop and thrive. Leeds Trinity University has invested £5.7million in a new learning centre; a building that offers first class and modern facilities ideal for not only teaching and learning, but also conferencing. Leeds College of Music has revamped its main performance space, The Venue, by adding a striking rooftop extension right in the heart of Leeds’ cultural quarter, offering increased capacity for more break-out facilities and catering provision.

Alongside this, further venues that have benefitted are some of Leeds’ most popular delegate accommodation destinations. One of the most significant additions has been the launch of a new spa at Rudding Park. Costing £9.5million, the new Rudding Park Spa has been recognised as the Best New Spa in the UK by the Good Spa Guide 2017 and features the UK’s first genuine Roof Top Spa and Garden, offering an extensive range of thermotherapy and hydrotherapy experiences. The Holiday Inn Express has also invested £1 million into refurbishing its bedroom facilities, with works due to be completed in March of this year.

Jennifer Young, Head of ConferenceLeeds, commented: “With Leeds as a top 10 UK conferencing city and the 2nd most popular in the North of England according the 2017 BMEIS report, it is extremely important that our venues offer the highest quality facilities. We aim to not only provide world-class conferencing venues, but to also provide exceptional accommodation and experiences to delegates to make a conferencing visit to Leeds truly remarkable in every way."

For more information, visit www.conference-leeds.com or follow ConferenceLeeds on Twitter @conferenceleeds.

Visitors to Hamburg Convention Bureau’s stand at IMEX in Frankfurt can step inside one of Europe's largest convention centres and virtually explore the redeveloped venue’s 50 halls in advance of its official opening.

Specially developed VR headsets using new ‘unreal engine’ technology enable planners at the show to move through the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH) and interact with the space. The new CCH will be the largest of its kind in Germany when it reopens in 2020 with a 12,000 sqm exhibition area and 12,000 seats in up to 50 halls. The redeveloped centre will be able to accommodate several concurrent events and the entrance hall, rising as tall as the main building, provides an additional multi-purpose space.

Joining the CCH team at Hamburg Convention Bureau’s stand at IMEX are a vast range of hotels and venues. This includes three 5* hotels - the largest privately owned 5* conference hotel in Germany, the Grand Elysee; the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski and the recently-opened The Fontenay, which offers breath-taking views over the Alster Lake from its 131 rooms and suites.

Other hotels on the stand include the greenest hotel in Germany - the Scandic; hip design hotel Gastwerk and Jufa Hotel Hamburg HafenCity – a new four-star, 200 room hotel located in the heart of Europe's largest inner-city development project. It has five workshop and seminar rooms, hosting up to 500 participants.

TUI Cruises, one of the leading catering and event suppliers Nord Event and UNESCO World Heritage Site Lübeck, ensure there is a wide range of venues, destinations and suppliers from across the Germany’s celebrated maritime region for planners to meet.

Florian Gerdes, Marketing Manager Conventions at Hamburg Convention Bureau, explains: “We’re looking forward to showing planners a new way to experience the city’s show stopping venues. The use of innovative technology at our stand – combined with traditional Hamburg hospitality with curry sausage and tea cocktails – brings to life the city’s top credentials as a formidable location for meetings and events. Hamburg offers an ever-growing choice of venue and accommodation options - with 19 hotels scheduled to open this year alone.”

Hamburg Convention Bureau is at stand number G100 at IMEX in Frankfurt, taking place 15 – 17 May 2018.

www.hamburg-convention.com/en/imex-frankfurt-2018 | www.the-new-cch.com