The Chamberlain News

Major Event: Birmingham does quite well in another list

Birmingham’s position in a whole variety of lists and league tables has become something of an obsession. For some of our friends in the media and colleagues in the PR business, it’s meat and drink stuff. But today’s list is quite the event – it’s the reveal of the meetings and events industry table. 

Birmingham has been named the country’s “favourite business tourism destination” outside London by UK-based event organisers.

The annual British Meetings & Events Industry Survey (BMEIS) – a report highlighting the buying trends and characteristics of nearly 500 conference organisers from the corporate and not-for-profit sectors – revealed that Birmingham was the preferred choice outside of the capital to host events. Birmingham was ranked ahead of Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds in the top five by industry professionals.

Meet Birmingham – the city’s business tourism programme operated by Marketing Birmingham – reports that working with venues across the region it has secured 56 new national and international events in 2016, an increase of 133% on the previous 12 months, delivering an anticipated combined impact of over £35 million to the local economy.

Earlier this week, the Birmingham Mail reported that Birmingham was only 33rd, yes number thirty-three, in a league table of the UK’s “most entertaining cities”.

Chamberlain News suggests this might be one of those surveys which owes more to good PR than quality research given it was “compiled” by a website offering “the largest collection of free to play online slots on the web.” We think our friends at I Choose Birmingham magazine were onto something:

Had to fix yet *another* Birmingham Mail headline

— I Choose Birmingham (@ichoosemag)

Arguably, as the largest city after the capital and given the prominence of conferencing, exhibition and hospitality in the city region economy dating back to the development of the National Exhibition Centre, it would be pretty big news if Birmingham was not the first choice after the capital.

Stephanie Mynett, Visitor Economy Business Development Manager at Meet Birmingham, said:

This is the eighth time in a row that Birmingham has been voted the top regional UK location for conferencing and events. Following this year’s successful Conservative Party Conference in the city, the result of this survey offers another huge boost to the hard work of our partners to provide the best possible experience for event organisers.

Birmingham has seen a 17% growth in domestic leisure and business visitors since 2010, as well as the largest increase of international visits for any city outside London, contributing to an overall tourism economy worth £6.2 billion.

Since the start of 2016, Birmingham has been able to herald a number of openings and redevelopments. Europe’s first Park Regis Hotel and AC Hotel Birmingham opened in the spring, while BLOC Hotels this month launched new apartments in the city’s Jewellery Quarter. New or refurbished conferencing facilities in the region include Canalside at The Cube, The Slate at Warwick Conferences, a £1.8 million refresh of the ICC’s halls and meeting rooms and the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre (BCEC).

It has the unique quality of benefiting from research – and the writer comes from Manchester and seems to have good things to say about our cultural scene.

You pays your money, and you takes your choice of list.

Main pic: The Slate at Warwick Conferences.