Choice is the word of the day for Coventry and Warwickshire, find out what makes the region a choice for event planners.
With event planners looking ever-more laterally when considering location, a region needs to have more than just the essentials to compete on the UK scene.
Coventry and Warwickshire (C&W) is a region that offers a lot to event organisers, from its accessible supply chain and regional charms to its diversity of venues and appeal to key industries, it has many things going for it.
Central location
Situated one hour from London, Coventry and Warwickshire is accessible for many delegate bases in the south of England. Being in a central location, it also has great transport links to the north of the country, priming it for a pan-regional conference with visitors from across the UK.
By road, the area has five motorway connections, bested by its rail links for delegates – with access to trains to and from central London every 20 minutes. Warwick, Stratford upon Avon and Leamington Spa can be reached in less than two hours on a direct train from London Marylebone.
Being so close to Birmingham means that C&W can take advantage of the 12m passengers flying through Birmingham Airport each year. Also, being 90 minutes from Heathrow means that the region can easily take advantage of an international delegate base.
The region also strikes a balance, between the city nature of Coventry and the countryside of Warwickshire, allowing it to cater for a variety of delegate archetypes through location and landscape.
Accessible supply chain
One selling point for the region is the fact that many of its venues, local suppliers and amenities, can be accessed regardless of budget. With venues of diverse sizes and affordability ranges on offer throughout the region, planners living with the constraints of tight profit margins should consider C&W for its quality options.
What this means for organisations across the country is that Coventry and Warwickshire can be utilised for events of both varying budgets and sizes. With the locality of many of the suppliers also being a plus for businesses looking to invest in community support under corporate social responsibility.
Being outside of London helps with delegate costs for food and beverage – but beyond this is a supply chain that’s locality provides a wealth of benefits to organisers, while contributing to the community angle of sustainability.
With events operating on finer and finer margins, event planners must take advantage of the competitive price points that make up much of the events fare in the region.
Heritage, history and sport
Coventry has a lot to offer when it comes to heritage. The Cathedral Quarter in particular (which houses the famous three spires of Holy Trinity Church, Christ Church and St Michael’s) is a call-back to the city’s Medieval history that makes for great incentives to pair alongside the traditional conference fare.
The area is also a hub for sport, with football, netball, ice hockey and rugby all being represented by their respective teams. This not only provides incentive travel options for those wanting to watch sporting events, but also gives a great foundation for events looking to take advantage of the sector strengths within C&W.
Being the UK City of Culture in 2021/22 showed off Coventry’s cultural chops to the nation, it now looks to build upon this with a thriving music scene, vibrant nightlife and memorable culinary offerings. These aspects all tie into one thing for the conferences market: experience. The thing that happens outside of the conference hall that makes a delegate walk away happy.
Diversity of venues
The places to be within Coventry and Warwickshire are also putting the region on the map, with modern conference venues like Coventry Building Society Arena being paired with historic sites like St Mary’s Guildhall.
This combination of old and new epitomises some of the area’s charms, with planners given a wide breadth of choice when selecting where to host conferences. But more than just the standard metrics of size and facilities, it’s the connection to the region that many of the venues offer that makes C&W an attractive proposition for organisers, especially those looking to improve the community engagement side of its social responsibility obligation.
