5 Best Conference Venue (S) 2020

These are the best venues of 2020, as voted by the 15 industry judges bought together by conference and Incentive magazine see here

Best Venue

WINNER

Convention Centre Dublin

The Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD) was developed to provide a world-class conference venue in the heart of Ireland’s capital city.

The CCD has a proven track record for excellence and prides itself on the quality of service it provides to clients worldwide. The team at The CCD constantly deliver exceptional customer service and this is displayed by the excellent customer feedback the business receives since opening and the customer satisfaction rates remaining above 99%. This is further demonstrated by the fact that 35% of client events were counted as repeat business, with some events being held at the venue for eight years in a row (AirFinance).

In the past year, the venue managed to secure almost 100 new and exciting high-profile clients, such as Mastercard and Microsoft and held some impressive international conferences for the first time, including the the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENs), Worldcon and the International Headache Society Congress.

Since June last year, The CCD held 145 events with 52 of these being international events attracting over 33,000 international conference delegates, worth over €54 million to the local Irish economy. June 2019 to March 2020 saw some of the venue’s busiest months with 145 events taking place before the current pandemic COVID-19 restrictions came into place in early March 2020.

As the world’s first carbon-neutral constructed convention centre, The CCD is one of Europe’s most environmentally-friendly venues. In this period, The CCD maintained a recycling rate of 98% showing a strong focus on sustainability within the business.

Finalist

Troxy London

Troxy opened its doors for the first time in 1933 and after a diverse past as a cinema, bingo hall and orchestra practice rooms is now one of London’s most authentic East End venues.

In the past decade, its corporate offering has seen exponential growth, diversifying the venue’s client base to include conferences, awards ceremonies, product launches, parties and reception events. B2B events now form the largest part of the venue’s revenue.

2019/2020 was set to be a record year for Troxy, curtailed only by the Covid-19 crisis in March. In the last 12 months it has hosted almost 100 corporate events, thanks in part to a new Head of Sales and 6 new starters in client management, but supported by a dedicated corporate marketing drive and strong partnerships with new and existing suppliers.

Without a doubt, the best thing about Troxy is its people. This year saw the introduction of a completely new way of working, with the sales team split between account managers and event managers. The team now works in pairs on events to cut down on the long hours and give the client a consistent service during set up and at the event itself. This alongside the refurbishment of the office and team facilities is among a number of initiatives to improve and work/life balance for the whole Troxy staff.

Troxy’s status as an independent venue offers event organisers the sort of flexibility and responsiveness that is increasingly rare when dealing with larger organisations. Through the ongoing challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Troxy’s team has been able to work closely with clients to reschedule events to the end of 2020 and into 2021 through a flexible approach to cancellations and postponement.

QEII Centre

QEII Centre

The QEII Centre is the largest dedicated conference and exhibition space in central London, offering world-class facilities for high-profile conferences, conventions, exhibitions and corporate events with capacity of up to 2,500 delegates. The Centre, which opened in 1986, hosts over 400 national and international events each year, from product launches and press conferences to annual general meetings and association events, through to banquets and themed events.

QEII’s, central location, warm welcome, professional approach and constant investment in facilities, means it has become a trusted destination for a growing number of events and boasts a high client retention rate of 70%.

As well as offering a flexible space for a wide number of events, the venue offers excellent AV and catering services through award-winning in-house teams QEII Live and QEII Taste. QEII Live’s technology and AV services enhance any event, while QEII Taste demonstrates innovation and excellence in on-trend, bespoke F&B solutions.

Thanks to its ongoing investment in world-class facilities and its dedicated team, The QEII Centre celebrated its most successful financial year to date in 2019/20 and contributed £153m to the UK economy in 2019.

Finalist

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)

ADNEC’s strengths come from championing and implementing its objectives across the whole company. Our mission is to become the leading events destination for international exhibitions and conferences in the MENA region. To directly increase economic impact to Abu Dhabi by creating a platform that enables organisers to realise their goals of connecting people via events and venues and constantly delivering world class service that continues to exceed our partners’ expectations.
ADNEC is committed to being more than a venue for our clients. Our priority is to support organisers in achieving their objective and firmly believe that a client’s success is a success not only for our venue but also for Abu Dhabi.
With this in mind ADNEC works as a one-stop-shop to make it easy for organisers, not just with our in-house production and catering companies but also with regards to our government and protocol team who can provide guidance and facilitation of patronage with the relevant government departments and as well as our in-house marketing and PR team who work with organisers to maximise exposure for their event free of charge.
ADNEC had a record breaking year clearly demonstrated both in numbers but just as significantly through the range of companies that have come to Abu Dhabi for their first time. Our investment in high end facilities and cutting edge technical services has allowed us to not only to advance our business offering but also to support those of our partner organisers, exhibitors and visitors for now and the future.for international exhibitions and conferences in the MENA region. To directly increase economic impact to Abu Dhabi by creating a platform that enables organisers to realise their goals of c…

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Finalist

Reflect, recognise reboot. A resilient city on the rise.

ICC Belfast

Originally opened in 1997 as a public sector organisation, ICC Belfast transitioned its operating model to that of a private limited company in 2015 to focus on the commercial opportunity of driving national and international conference business – to positively impact the city as a whole. The ICC Belfast brand was launched in October 2018, following the unveiling of a £29.5M redevelopment, which extended the venue to over 7,000sqm. The organisational vision is to double the business through the relentless pursuit of excellence for everyone; people, clients, partners, customers and stakeholders. Matching ICC Belfast’s ambitions and vision for food, hospitality, maintenance and security with providers that are also driven to be world-class facilitates the delivery of an event experience like no other through continuous evolution and improvement. Economic contribution is ICC Belfast’s driver and in March 2020, the venue confirmed £108M economic impact had been delivered for the City of Belfast, exceeding the original target of £100M by March 2021.
The past 12 months have been extraordinary for ICC Belfast. In November 2019 a digital marketing campaign was devised for client BAPEN, which resulted in a 30% increase in delegate registrations. AstraZeneca’s sales kick off was then one of the first to be held in the venue in 2020 where the focus was on creating a delegate experience through emotional connections. When faced with a global pandemic the venue pivoted its approach. Proactivity and incredible live experiences made way for business preparedness. Internal communications and responding to the specific needs of clients were prioritised and a hybrid studio was built. The team has shown incredible resilience during this period doing everything they can to ensure Belfast retains its status as a unique, vibrant business events destination and economic impact is delivered for years to come.

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