Conference boost holds £1.5m payback for Cambridge

A team from Conference Cambridge has just returned from the IMEX Frankfurt 2014 exhibition with event enquiries worth over £500,000 which could bring around £1.5 million of revenue to the local economy.

The official free venue-finding service for the University and its Colleges, as well as hotels and other unique properties in and around Cambridge, said the show was a great success in promoting the city as an outstanding global destination for meetings and events.

Conference Cambridge exhibited as part of the VisitEngland stand and welcomed clients from over the world including Europe, India and the US. Enquiries received were for a wide range of events comprising residential conferences, one-day meetings and dinners.

These included a weekend for 300 delegates, an award ceremony for over 1,000 guests and a three-day medical conference for 300.

The theme for the stand was ‘A Decade of Sport’ which included a number of events during the three-day Show. These included: rugby players from Cambridge doing tricks on the stand’s mini rugby pitch; serving tea, coffee, wine and English snacks such as scones, cheese and biscuits; football players demonstrating fancy footwork with visitors being served English wines; and a prize draw with the chance to win a Cambridge University rugby shirt and boating T-shirt.

Kelly Vickers, manager of Conference Cambridge said: “The opportunity to network and meet hosted buyers at IMEX was great for us – putting our city as a potential destination in front of an international audience of agents, associations and clients from the corporate sector.

“Many people we spoke to had obviously heard of Cambridge but were clearly enthused by the breadth of facilities we are able to offer in our extensive portfolio. We’ve got some great enquiries as a result of attending the event, which we will endeavour to attract to Cambridge.”