Wild West Mids

The buoyancy of the event industry in the West Midlands was highlighted in a KPMG-issued report, commissioned by Marketing Birmingham. It unveiled figures showing that the West Midlands event industry contributes more than £6bn to the regional economy, supports more than 100,000 jobs and generates some £800m in tax revenue for the Treasury.

Sat Bal spoke to West Midlands’ event figures about what this meant for the region and its event businesses.

The KPMG research illustrates that Birmingham and the
West Midlands has the biggest events sector outside of
London. Much of Birmingham's progress has been based on
the events and hospitality sector, The NEC Group alone
generates £1.3 billion and supports the equivalent of 22,000
jobs in the region.
Last year more than 200,000 events attracted 14 million
conference delegates and exhibition visitors to the West
Midlands - 4.5 million of whom visited our venues. We see
many of these great events return year on year, and are
incredibly proud to be welcoming back The BBC to stage
Sports Personality of the Year in December - the second
year it will be staged outside of London.
We set the stage for some of the UK's best loved shows,
some of the world's most important business events and the
very best in live music. We work hard to ensure our
customers and visitors prefer our venues, over our
competitors because we provide everything they need, they enjoy the time they spend with us, and whatever the event, we can make it happen.
We are investing significantly in bringing our buildings up-to-date and fit for purpose for the 21st century events market, but more importantly we are also investing significantly into our greatest asset, which is our staff. These two can deliver events, however, it is hugely important that the greeting that Birmingham and the West Midlands provides also keeps pace with our investment.
Paul Thandi, NEC Group Chief Executive, Birmingham

London accounts for one third of all conference venue finding traffic on our website with over 3,200 visitors per day. In close 2nd, however, is Birmingham with just under 1,200 visitors per day. This clearly demonstrates the pull factor for the West Midlands. The West Midlands is the crossroads for the whole of the UK and accessibility has been key to its expansion as a UK business centre. The West Midlands has a lot to offer. We have 860 conference venues featured in the West Midlands.
Total searches made for the month in June are shown below. This indicates people actually searching Birmingham and West Midlands on the site:
26346 London, 22341 Central London, 16482 Manchester
12587 Birmingham.
Simon Thompson, Director and Founder of Conferences UK

I am not surprised by
KPMG’s findings because we
have had enormous success
since we opened in 2005 and
we are now marketing the
Ricoh Arena as a world-class
destination for business,
sport and entertainment.

We are launching the
International Events Centre
(IEC) at the Ricoh Arena to
market the state-of-the-art
conference and exhibition
facilities under one easily
identifiable product.

The Ricoh Arena’s unique selling point is that it provides a dedicated conference and exhibition centre as well as the largest column-free banqueting space in the Midlands.
With live events, World-class acts that have played at the venue including Bon Jovi, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and most recently this June, Rod Stewart.

Who else has a selection of different sized conference rooms as well as a 6,000 square metre Jaguar Exhibition Hall and a hotel, casino and health club on one site? KPMG's findings are borne out at the Ricoh Arena.

Daniel Gidney, chief executive, Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

One of the reasons the hotel has been so successful
since it opened 18 months ago is the phenomenal
support we have received from the leaders and
people of Birmingham. They want businesses –
particularly new ones like ours – to succeed.
The event industry here is doing so well not least
because it is driven by the city. A co-operative
industry is a succesful one and this is reflected in
KPMG's findings.

Birmingham understands and embraces the idea that
if the events industry is going great guns it will have a
positive impact on the overall success of the city. In
other words, it’s all about joined-up thinking.

Kathrine Ohm Thomas, General Manager -
Radisson SAS Hotel, Birmingham.

KPMG is right about regional development. Here at Malmaison Hotel we've just refurbished five of our best suites. The suites' names all represent the locality or history of the Malmaison building and its origins as Birmingham's main postal sorting office. Our suite of suites has aptly been named the 'Penny Black'.

Underlining the KPMG conclusion, we're also planning ahead with a refurb this year of our "Meetings and Events Floor" and all carpets, sofas, walls and lights. Colour themes feature purples and browns so that we host Mal meetings with a twist. We want to
ensure that guests in long meetings are ensconced
in stylish surroundings with free internet access, WIFI and other support facilities. We look forward to KMPG's next report featuring higher income figures for the West Midlands event and venue industry.

Jo Brain,
Regional Business Development Manager, Malmaison & Hotel du Vin hotels.

The research that we commissioned KPMG to conduct on
behalf of Marketing Birmingham gave us valuable
information about the size and impact of the events industry
in the West Midlands region.

The events industry at present supports more than 100,000
jobs across the region and has played an important part in
tipping hotel occupancy in Birmingham city centre over the
elusive 70% barrier.

Internationally renowned venues such as those provided by
The NEC Group, and big name business hotels like Hyatt
Regency and Radisson SAS are prime examples of how the
industry is thriving in Birmingham, and represent the calibre
of businesses that are attracted to the city.

Now that we have set a benchmark, we will continue to record trends and statistics in the events industry so that we can monitor growth year on year. The results show that in 2006 £2.3bn of income generated by events is spent directly in Birmingham, representing a 77% increase on total visitor spending in Birmingham since last recorded figures by The NEC Group in 1999 of £1.3bn. There is no doubt that the events industry is now a serious economic driver for the West Midlands and that its national contribution should not be underestimated.

Ian Taylor, Commercial Director - Marketing Birmingham