BUSINESS EVENTS SCOTLAND’S FINEST VENUES
Diversity, sophistication, ambition….and growth
Scotland’s events sector bolstered by new venues and continuing expansion
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN T
his summer, a long- awaited project to diver- sify the economy of the north-east of Scotland will finally bear fruit with the
opening of The Events Complex Aberdeen (TECA). Aberdeen, internationally known
for its offshore oil and gas indus- try, has embarked on a mission to develop its events sector with the new 12,500-capacity venue, which will be managed by international venue management group SMG Europe and backed by three new hotels onsite. Te ambition for Aberdeen mirrors that of Scot- land as a whole, which punches well above its weight for the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) sector. The Scot- tish Event Campus in Glasgow, with its three separate venues encompassing business events and entertainment, is preparing to expand its ageing exhibition centre, transforming it into a modern venue of tier one standing. Te SEC, which has also been boosted by a new Radisson Red hotel on campus, applied for ‘planning permission in principle’ in November to develop a state-of-the-art £200m facility at the west end of its site, to keep up with ‘constantly evolving’ global competition. In Dundee, the birth of the
V&A design museum and the development of a £1bn waterfront project could see the creation of a purpose-built events and confer- ence centre, accommodating up to 1,500 delegates; economic develop- ment agency Scottish Enterprise has already conducted a ‘feasibility study’ and it is hoped a commit- tee meeting in May will see further progress on a new venue, which is likely to be located in the city cen- tre. With 400,000 visitors already
(TECA), above, and, left, plans for an expanded SEC in Glasgow.
having passed through the doors of the new waterside museum, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the Tayside region is becoming a more popular destina- tion for tourism in general with its improved railway station and accompanying 120-bed Sleeperz hotel. In the capital, the Edinburgh
International Conference Centre is one of Scotland’s most sophis- ticated conference venues and it regularly stages 1,000-plus delegate events of global signifi-
cance, most notably in 2017 when Barack Obama made his first keynote speech outside the US since leaving the White House. Te EICC is also one of the world’s most versatile conference centres and has invested heavily in both redevelopment and technology in recent years. Edinburgh is the highest-ranked UK conference des- tination outside London according to leading global industry body, the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), and the city is complemented by a
host of other venues including The Assembly Rooms, McEwan Hall which are both world-class events venues backed up by historical and architectural interest. Further afield, the Royal Highland Centre – Scotland’s largest indoor and outdoor venue, right next to Edin- burgh Airport - is in the process of developing a new events facility. Developer Holmes Miller submit- ted plans for a new multi-use venue, on the site of the original MacRobert Pavilion, with a capac- ity of 350, covering 1100m2. n
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