Manchester played host to the Labour Party 2004 Spring Conference over the weekend of 12-14 March, attracting over 3,000 visitors to the City. The Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC) hosted four concurrent conferences: Labour Party Local Government Conference, Labour Party European Conference, Labour Party Rural Conference and Labour Party Women’s Conference.
The spread of interest ensured the attendance of a wide spectrum of elected representatives, from local party delegates and local authority leaders and councillors to government ministers, MPs and MEPs. The Labour Party Spring Conferences also had a commercial dimension, with over 60 commercial exhibitors, numerous political and commercial lobbying companies, and sponsors of events and fringe meetings. Conference rooms at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel were also used for the event.
The conference was brought to Manchester through the efforts of Marketing Manchester’s conference team, supported by Manchester City Council. It is estimated that the event was worth £2.35m to the City, and placed it back at the centre of media attention, both nationally and inter-nationally. The success of the event should bode well in bidding for, and hosting, future high-profile political party events.
Manchester has a vast range of facilities available for conferences large and small. G-Mex and the MICC together have 12,500 sq m of exhibition space in three halls, an auditorium for 800, 12 breakout rooms and 15ancillary offices. The centre can also provide banqueting facilities for up to 5,000. Within G-Mex, the Windsor Hall provides 2,800 sq m column-free floorspace and the Central Hall 7,500 sq m. The Great Northern Hall within the MICC can cater for up to 1,600 people in its 1,900 sq m.
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester’s International Concert Hall, on Lower Mosley Street includes an auditorium seating 1,875 and the Barbirolli Room, while Manchester Town Hall offers the elegance of the Great Hall.
Manchester’s UMIST and Victoria Universities are already two of the largest academic conference players in the North West and their merger this October will make the new Manchester University one of the biggest conference venues in the country. UMIST’s Manchester Conference Centre on Sackville Street consists of four purpose-built, adjacent buildings.
The Weston Building includes the 280- seat Weston Theatre and the 120-seat Manchester Evening News Theatre as well as meeting rooms and 500 sq m of exhibition space. The building also includes accommodation in the form of a 117-bed hotel and an adjacent 300 en-suite student bedrooms.
The recently refurbished Renold Building includes eight theatres from 140 seats to 500 seats, seminar rooms and 1,200 sq m exhibition space. The main building offers the 400-seat Great Hall, while the Staff House offers up to 13 seminar and syndicate rooms seating between four and 100. The Victoria University offers tiered lecture theatres, banqueting for up to 325, exhibition space and meeting space at their main campus on Oxford Road.
The Rusholme Campus offers accommodation during the Easter and summer vacations and meeting rooms the whole year through. Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre provides dedicated year-round conference facilities with 75 bedrooms and meeting facilities for up to 100 people.
Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music also offer facilities, while the Manchester Business School includes 116 en-suite bedrooms.
As well as the Midland, most major hotels in the City offer rooms for seminars. The Palace Hotel on Oxford Road includes a ballroom for up to 1,000 delegates. The Radisson Edwardian on Peter Street, due to
open in the summer includes 18 meeting rooms, suitable for eight to 80 people, situated on the first, third and fourth floors of the former Free Trade Hall. The Hallé Conference and Banqueting Suite on the second floor can be used as one major function room capable of hosting up to 425 people, with its own reception area, or as up to four individual suites for between 60 and 125 people. Other, quirkier, opportunities in the City include the Museum of Science and Industry and the Manchester Velodrome.