BUSINESS EVENTS ACADEMIC VENUES
Glasgow Caledonian
University is among a series of academic venues to have invested in the MICE market
Life on campus – why academic venues are right on trend
As universities and colleges ‘sweat their assets’ we look at the growth in demand for the cerebral conference experience
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN U
niversities and col- leges have long played host to the meetings industry but a series of recent investments
into campus facilities is helping fuel demand among events planners. Scotland’s academic seats of
learning are today more business- focused and stuffy lecture halls have given way to much fresher and more appealing spaces for events.
Many university campuses –
notably in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Central Belt – have become more adept at capturing the MICE market, and have modernised to that effect. Forth Valley College has ploughed
over £128m into its three facilities in Stirling, Alloa and most recently Falkirk, which has its ribbon-cut- ting by First Minister Nicola Stur- geon on April 1. Te shining new £78m campus, which opened in February, is already attracting inter- est from community groups and business, and is looking to carve an innovative niche for itself, in terms of being able to offer ‘much more‘ than workaday theatre-style events. Te University of Strathclyde’s
Technology and Innovation Centre – the unmistakeble arrow-tipped
building on Glasgow’s George Street – also goes from strength, and has notched up a slew of awards includ- ing being shortlisted three years in a row for the conference industry ‘Oscars’, the M&IT Awards, finish- ing in the top three every year. And not to be outdone in terms
of striking buildings – the other- worldly cyclops lecture hall that casts a lingering eye on delegates as they arrive at Edinburgh Napier University – is among many Scot- tish campus buildings that continue to prove a hit among delegates, and of an architectural style and interest that set them apart from most hotel stock. A recent trend driving further
interest in academic venues, and picked up by one of the UK’s lead- ing venue finding agencies, is that
conference organisers are looking for the ‘residential experience’, for which academic venues have always been well suited. However, as further investment going into student accommodation shows, in particular the recent upgrade of the University of Edinburgh’s Pollock Halls, universities and colleges are moving up a gear in that respect as well. Emma Little, chief executive
of the Edinburgh-headquartered ExecSpace, tells EventsBase: “More than ever before there is greater choice for event planners when it comes to booking their events. “Organisations that hold signifi-
cant property as assets are often keen to ‘sweat’ that asset during quieter times – and universities and colleges are a great example of that.
➜ EVENTSBASE | SPRING 2020 | 43
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