EICC welcomes millionth delegates at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium

The Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) has opened its doors to its one-millionth delegate. The milestone was reached in the 18th years since the venue opened.
 
The millionth delegate was Philippa Berry, Professor of Altimetric Engineering at the University of Newcastle, who was attending the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Living Planet Symposium this week.
 
Berry was one of 1,900 registered delegates attending the five-day Symposium supported by the UK Space Agency.
 
Accepting a specially engraved Scottish Quaich (welcome drinking cup) to mark the milestone, Berry said: “I am both surprised and delighted to accept this Quaich. My academic career began in Scotland when I was the first woman to gain a degree in astronomy from the University of St Andrews and coming back here is always special.”
 
EICC’s Chief Executive, Hans H Rissmann OBE, added: “We are delighted that our one millionth delegate is someone attending this ESA Symposium. There can be no greater endeavour than work to safeguard the future of our planet and playing our part in making this and every event at EICC a success is what we will always strive to achieve.”  
 
Commenting on the business tourism milestone, the Scottish Government’s Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing, said: “Business tourism is a crucial sector of the Scottish tourism industry. For the EICC to have attracted one million business tourists to Scotland is a major achievement and I congratulate them.”
 
It is estimated that the ESA Symposium will deliver an economic impact of almost £3.9m to Edinburgh and Scotland.
 
In May 2013, EICC opened a new £30m expansion space including the world’s first hall wide moving floor system.
 
Photo (L to R): Berry, Ewing, ESA’s Director for Earth Observation, Professor Volker Leibig and Hans Rissmann.
 
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