Meeting in the heart of Leeds

Leeds is a vibrant and energetic city that’s easy to explore and ripe for discovery. A city that’s most definitely top of the ‘cool list,’ Leeds has reinvented itself as a modern, cosmopolitan destination renowned for its heritage, culture, fantastic shopping, live music and delicious food.
   
With its rich heritage, it’s easy to see why visitors fall in love with Leeds. There are listed buildings and Victorian arcades sat firmly alongside a cluster of Europe’s best Higher Education Institutions, stunning landscapes across the region’s National Parks and standout conferencing venues.
   
When it comes to hosting conferences, meetings and events, Leeds itself is a unique location boasting a diverse portfolio of venues that ensure truly memorable events.
   
Alongside the city’s collection of gold AIM accredited venues, more than any other UK city outside London, Leeds also boasts an abundance of one-off spaces. Conferences can be hosted at the home of the Northern Ballet or at Elland Road football stadium, which has a whole host of conferencing options.  There’s also a wealth of interesting venue options for evening receptions, networking events and breakout spaces across the city. Why not choose for your delegates to dine among Henry VIII’s original armour at the Royal Armouries, guaranteeing a conference experience like no other.

Boost the conference programme
As an economic powerhouse with global reach, Leeds brings together energy, ambition and a wealth of talent and is a recognised thought leader in health and innovation, bespoke engineering solutions, digital technologies and financial services. As part of their extensive and complimentary service, Conference Leeds can assist with access to ambassadors and leading industry figures across the city region to support and boost your conference programme.
   
Leeds also has the benefit of being extremely well connected, with excellent transport links making the city easily accessible from anywhere across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Just over two hours travel by train from both London and Edinburgh, serviced by its own international airport, Leeds Bradford International Airport, and easily accessed by road from the M1 or M62, Leeds is one of the most connected destinations in the UK.
   
To help event planners, Conference Leeds has a dedicated planning team, who offer a free venue search service and make tailored recommendations, including the coordination and collaboration of a number of the city’s distinctive venues.

Teachers gather at Leeds
Last September, the UK’s largest teacher training event, Teach First’s Summer Institute, took place in Leeds for the first time. The event was project managed by Leeds Metropolitan University, in partnership with the University of Leeds, first direct Arena and accommodation providers Unite, Downing and CLV.
   
3,000 new teachers, tutors and staff members across England and Wales engaged with an innovative initial teacher training curriculum delivered in partnership by 10 University training providers, guest speakers, facilitators and Teach First ambassadors (alumni).
   
The event included the two-day Teach First Impact Conference, which marked the largest single event in the history of Teach First. This event included the Teach First Exhibition featuring 75 partner organisations, 120 teacher training and professional development workshops and a 120 piece youth orchestra (National Orchestra For All) concert performance in the first direct Arena.
   
There was also a panel debate by four senior leaders of UKs largest teacher unions and keynote speech was from Tal Ben Shahar, author of international best sellers Happier and Being Happy.
   
The training curriculum was also complemented by a diverse social programme including sports events and evening activities, which were organised in association with Leeds & Partners – 250 of the delegates competed in the Leeds City 10k road race.

Sporting events in 2015
2015 is set to be an exciting sporting year for the city of Leeds.
   
Leeds has been selected as a Host City for Rugby World Cup 2015 and is set to host two pool matches on September 26 and September 27, 2015. The city has a long association and passion for Rugby Union, so Leeds is set to come alive for the duration of the tournament, with an exciting fanzone in the heart of the city, Rugby Union heritage tours at Headingley Stadium and amazing food and drink experiences created especially for rugby fans.
   
Headingly Stadium will host some international cricket matches held in Leeds this year. The Stadium, just 10 minutes from the centre of Leeds, is one of the world’s best known cricket stadiums, which has been the backdrop for key moments across cricketing history, from hosting its first Ashes test match in 1899, to Don Bradman’s famous score of 309 in one day’s play in 1930 and Geoff Boycott’s hundredth first-class century scored during 1977’s Ashes test. In 2015, the 2nd Investec Test match, England v New Zealand, will take place from 29 May to 02 June 2015 and Headingley will also host the 4th Royal London One-Day International on Friday 11 September 2015, where England will take on Australia.
   
What’s more, following the success of last year’s Grand Départ of the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire, this year a new cycling race has been developed in celebration of the Grand Départ, with the hope of becoming the UK’s flagship competitive cycling race. The Tour de Yorkshire is a new race being held by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and Welcome to Yorkshire (WTY), supported by British Cycling and Leeds is set to host one stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, with a mass sportive for amateur cyclists to be held on 03 May, giving keen cyclists the chance to experience stretches of the Grand Départ route.

Food & Drink
The annual Leeds Food and Drink Festival embodies the spirit of Leeds, bringing together local businesses, residents and visitors in a two-week celebration of the city and the region’s finest food and drink. The event will take place from 22 May – 7 June 2015 and the event will feature the Yorkshire Food and Drink Show at Millennium Square, held on the final weekend, including live cookery demonstrations, pop-ups and food stands to delight culinary minds.
   
In September, Leeds will be hosting its International Beer Festival, an annual festival in the heart of the city centre. Now in its 5th year, which celebrates craft beers produced through the UK and overseas. Along with hundreds of beers and ciders from the UK, USA, Sweden and Germany, the festival also includes a street food marketing, live music across two stages and other beer-related activities in the heart of the city centre.

Get creative
Leeds is a creative city, with lots to offer the music, theatre and arts scene.
   
Winner of Best Metropolitan Music Festival at the UK Festival Awards, Live at Leeds is an annual city centre music festival held across a variety of unique venues in Leeds during the first bank holiday weekend in May. The festival will celebrate the best in upcoming local bands, alongside some more established names, featuring a huge number of gigs and other music inspired events. Acts for 2015 are still to be announced, but previous years have seen Ed Sheeran, Jake Bugg and Rudimental grace the stages of these intimate venues across the city.
   
What’s more, Leeds Festival returns for the August bank holiday weekend. One of the UK’s largest music festivals, there are a number of stages across Bramham Park hosting some of the world’s most-loved music names, including Florence and the Machine, The Foo Fighters and Kaiser Chiefs. This year, Leeds Festival is set to be bigger than ever, with over 75,000 tickets available, which include weekend campsite tickets and day tickets. Metallica and Jamie T are among the first names of 2015’s line up which have been announced so far.
   
Leeds is home to a number of excellent theatres, including Leeds Grand Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, City Varieties and Carriageworks, all of which have extensive programmes across 2015, including performances of To Kill A Mockingbird, King Lear and Hairspray. The city also proudly boasts its own opera company, Opera North and ballet company, Northern Ballet, who tour across the UK and internationally, as well as having a programme of performances taking place in Leeds throughout the year, including Opera North’s Swanhunter and Northern Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet.
   
The internationally renowned exhibition, British Art Show 8, will open at Leeds Art Gallery in October 2015. Organised every five years by the Hayward Gallery as part of the Hayward Touring programme, the British Art Show showcases the very best work of both emerging and established artists. It is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK calendar, attracting over 420,000 visitors in its tour to four cities in 2010 and 2011. This year, Anna Colin and Lydia Yee have been selected by a senior panel of curators to curate the exhibition for the British Art Show 8.

An inspiring backdrop
As you can see, once the meetings, lectures and networking events are over, delegates will delight in exploring a vibrant and lively city as their conference backdrop. From renowned theatre, ballet and opera, moreish street food and international live music to the wealth of exceptional city centre accommodation, business delegates will relish the opportunity to discover this exciting city in their downtime.
   
So why not think outside the box and explore the compelling conferencing city offer in Leeds?

Further information
www.conference-leeds.com