Meet in Nottingham, the official Convention Bureau for the region, has announced the success of its exhibition at VisitBritain’s MeetEngland Virtual 2021, where it showcased the city to event organisers from North America, Europe and China to potential events and conferences business to the region.
The event aimed to provide an opportunity for international event organisers and agencies to discover the best of the UK’s business events industry. Meet in Nottingham arranged various appointments with international events organisers. The team outlined the benefits of holding conferences in Nottingham, such as the history and legends for delegates to explore in their free time, the central location and the transport links.
It also showcased its conference venues, from the 10,000 capacity Motorpoint Arena to the newly refurbished East Midlands Conference Centre to the historic Nottingham Castle reopening in 2021 after a major £30m refurbishment.
Event planners were most interested in the UK’s vaccination campaign, Nottingham’s mission to be the first carbon-neutral city in the UK and Nottingham’s leisure market, such as its Restaurant Sat Bains and Alchemilla.
This created promising leads that could result in future, large-scale events being held in Nottingham. Meet in Nottingham’s presence at MeetEngland Virtual 2021 aims to help the city secure a stream of pipeline business to support the recovery of the local economy in the coming years.
Robert Dixon, interim chief executive of marketing, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, said: “Meet in Nottingham, which is part of Marketing Nottingham, are delighted to have exhibited at VisitBritain’s innovative online event. MeetEngland Virtual 2021 provided us with a fantastic platform to engage with the international conference market at a time when we are unable to travel there in person. This year has been an extremely difficult one for the events and conferences sector, with many of Nottinghamshire’s event venues facing a prolonged loss of income.
“This industry is very important for Nottinghamshire, with business travellers bringing an estimated £470m to the local economy every year pre-Covid, and our frequent attendance at events such as MeetEngland will help us to position Nottingham as a key conference destination, encouraging event planners to bring their large-scale events here and supporting the recovery of our local conference sector. We are looking forward to welcoming delegates back to our green, creative and pioneering city as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Kerrin MacPhie, head of business events, VisitEngland, said: “MeetEngland Virtual created a platform that gave event professionals the opportunity to connect and forge valuable business relationships, keeping England front-of-mind as a leading destination for business events.
“We were delighted that the historic city of Nottingham was one of the 30 English destinations showcased, highlighting once again the high-quality and diverse mixture of product we have available across England. We are very much looking forward to safely welcoming back domestic and international delegates in person once restrictions can be lifted, to experience the world-class facilities and events that Nottingham and England have to offer.”
