04 September 2012
The ICC and the city of Birmingham are currently in the midst of preparations to host the Conservative Party’s annual Conference (7-10 October) which will be attended by the Prime Minister, David Cameron and members of the cabinet. Over 13,000 delegates are expected to attend along with 1600 national and international media as Birmingham and its award winning conference venue celebrate the return of this high profile event for the third time.
Nick Waight, managing director of The ICC said, “When conferences choose to return to our venue and our city it is a brilliant affirmation that we are getting things right. It is an honour to be placed centre stage during such a national event and an even bigger tribute to all our hard-working, professional staff that the Conservative Party have chosen to return for the third time in five years.”
Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party the Rt. Hon David Cameron MP said, “It gives me great pleasure to bring the Conservative Party Conference back to Birmingham’s ICC for the third time. The ICC proves time and again to be a tremendous conference venue, so I always look forward to holding our conference there.”
Neil Rami, Chief Executive, Marketing Birmingham - which operates the city’s leisure and business tourism programmes, added:
“The Conservatives’ return to the city is a clear endorsement of their confidence in our ability to deliver first-class events.
“Birmingham’s visitor numbers reached a high of 33.5million last year, helping boost the value of its visitor economy to £4.9billion. Major events such as political conferences, which the city has a real track record of hosting successfully, play a key role in bringing influential visitors and media to the city.
“The Conservative conference is yet another opportunity for the city to get in the limelight, boost its reputation and show its 13,500 guests – and a vast media presence – what it has to offer.”
The conference will utilise all areas of the ICC and boost the local economy in the form of hotel, leisure and hospitality spend. In addition to the main conference, which will close with a speech from the Prime Minister there will be over 500 fringe events taking place which will see staff delivering twelve months worth of events in four days.
The ICC and Birmingham are building on a well established reputation as a venue and city that can host the highest profile events having hosted all three main political party conferences in the past five years. The ICC was also selected to host the first meeting of the Cabinet outside London since 1921 in 2008 and in 1998 welcomed international leaders to the G8 Summit.