DESTINATION PROFILE : Conference Leeds

DESTINATION PROFILE : Conference Leeds:

Conference Leeds, the “super convention bureau" for Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Calderdale recently moved up the ‘top ten cities’ rankings and named  in the top five meeting destinations in the UK for the 4rd year running. Leeds is now the 5th most popular choice for corporate meetings ahead of cities such as Glasgow, Newcastle-Gateshead and Nottingham.

Conference Leeds represents over 280 venues and has a selection of almost 7,000 bedrooms to ensure organisers are spoilt for choice.  Venues in Leeds include Leeds Town Hall, the University of Leeds and new venue Aspire, more than a dozen city centre hotels, including the Met Hotel – winner of the Best Business Hotel Award at the 2010 Yorkshire Business Insider Tourism Awards, The Queens Hotel and City Inn.  In the wider region, unique venues include the National Media Museum, the National Coal Mining Museum for England and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park as well as stunning country house hotels including de Vere Oulton Hall Hotel and Rudding Park - recently named Trip Advisers Hotel of the Year.

With the popularity of the region being at an all time high for conferences and events, the venues are constantly refreshing and developing their facilities to provide the most up to date equipment for delegates.  The recently promoted Leeds United Football Club has just opened its £2 million transformation of its conference and events centre to produce a facility double its previous size.  The 2,000sqm newly titled Centenary Pavilion can cater for 1,600 delegates when it opens in September.

FOR THE FUTURE

Other developments from the region include a new 200 bedroom Jurys Inn hotel which has recently opened in Bradford city centre; the New Ellington boutique hotel which opened in Leeds in September; and construction has begun on the £80million Leeds Arena, which will have a capacity for over 12,000, will begin in late 2010.

Developments such as this continue to attract a wide range of high profile conferences and events. Bradford University recently played host to 400 international delegates at the 10th IEEE International Conferences for Scalable Computing and Communications; the Royal Armouries in Leeds hosted the Lions National Convention for 1,000 delegates in May and one of Leeds’ newest venues, the Rose Bowl, hosted an international Global Events Congress.

ACCESS

Leeds, Bradford and West Yorkshire have a fantastic location in the heart of the UK, right at the junction of the M1 and the M62, so it’s wonderfully accessible for delegates regardless of where in the country they’re travelling from. Leeds is only two hours away from London by train and there are an ever increasing number of scheduled flights coming in to Leeds Bradford International Airport from all over the UK and Europe.

For further information please contct Nicky Lockwood nicola.lockwood@conference-leeds.com