West Yorkshire: the place to do business

Conference Leeds, the super convention bureau for Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Calderdale, recently held on to its number five position in the top ten cities rankings for conferences, again beating off competition from the likes of Glasgow, Newcastle-Gateshead and Nottingham.

The venues
Conference Leeds represents over 280 venues and has a selection of almost 10,000 bedrooms to ensure organisers are spoilt for choice. Venues in Leeds include Leeds Town Hall, the University of Leeds and more than a dozen city centre hotels, including the Queens Hotel, the Mint Hotel, and the Met Hotel – winner of the Best Business Hotel Award at the 2010 Yorkshire Business Insider Tourism Awards.     

In the wider region, unique venues include the National Media Museum, the National Coal Mining Museum for England, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. In addition, the Bureau’s portfolio includes stunning country house hotels including Rudding Park, which was recently named TripAdvisers Hotel of the Year.

Find value in West Yorkshire
Bradford is a diverse conference destination which offers a wide range of venues from traditional to contemporary – all at excellent value for money. The city has something for every type of conference and event organiser. For example, the fantastic National Media Museum offers five floors of spectacular galleries, two auditoria and the IMAX experience, while the ALCC, Bradford’s largest venue, offers a modern facility with state of the art auditoria and contemporary interior design for up to 1,850. The city centre’s Midland Hotel offers all residential delegates a new ‘Stretch & Go’ package which shows guests how to look after their body first thing in the morning to ensure they feel good for the rest of the day.    

Conference organisers can also take advantage of venues for every kind of event, including the multi-award-winning Rose Bowl to the most recent additions, Carnegie Pavilion, Cloth Hall Court and Broadcasting Place – the building which has just been awarded ‘The best tall building in the world’. Well Met Conferencing offers these venues at breathtaking value with day delegate rates starting from £25 + VAT.

The place for events
The Leeds and West Yorkshire region attracts 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. Likewise, the Royal Armouries International in Leeds hosted the Lions National Convention, the 5th International Carers Conference and the 4th National Infection Prevention Conference for dentists. Across the city the Rose Bowl has hosted an international Global Events Congress and the Local Government Communications Conference.

Constant Investment

With the popularity of the region being at an all time high for conferences and events, the venues are constantly refreshing and developing their venues to provide the most up to date facilities for delegates. The recently promoted Leeds United Football Club has completed a £2million 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 and has already seen a significant amount of interest for conferences and events.   

Investments and developments ensure the region remains firmly on the business tourism map as an ideal location for conferences and events. A new 200 bedroom Jurys Inn hotel has recently opened in Bradford giving guests not just an excellent hotel experience with fantastic rates, but it is also a perfect starting point for exploring one of England’s largest and most vibrant cities.

Under development
The success of Leeds and West Yorkshire as a conference desination is partly due to the surge in development offering a great choice of meeting venues at a price to suit most budgets.   

Developments from around the region include the recently opened New Ellington Hotel in Leeds and construction has begun on the £80million Leeds Arena, which will have a capacity for over 12,000.     

Leeds, Bradford and West Yorkshire have a fantastic location in the heart of the UK, located just off the M1 and the M62. 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.

Help is at hand
Conference Leeds provide a Convention Bureau for Bradford ad West Yorkshire – a team of dedicated professionals who are on hand to provide friendly advice to help conference organisers manage an event every step of the way. From an initial enquiry through to post event follow up – the team offer a range of free services to make event planning as easy as possible.

For more information:

www.conference-leeds.com