one of the world's top venue management companies
OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Since the opening of the NEC in 1976, the NEC Group has been at the forefront of the live events industry with a passion for event excellence.
Our people and our brands connect each part of the live experience through venues, content, services and data – and by utilising our extensive portfolio, we help organisers create their perfect event.
EXHIBITIONS
With over 40 years’ experience, the NEC is the UK’s number one venue and the venue of choice for exhibition organisers.
The NEC is the UK’s largest exhibition venue with 18 interconnecting halls comprising 182,000m2 of flexible exhibition space, in addition to over 392 acres of hard-standing ground and 75 acres of woodland. The venue welcomes around 2.4 million visitors and over 34,000 exhibiting companies to more than 125 exhibitions every year, including flagship shows as BBC Good Food Show, Spring Fair International, Motorhome & Caravan and Crufts.
Benefiting from unrivalled connectivity by road, rail and air, the NEC is totally accessible to audiences from across the UK and further afield. The venue sits within a three-hour travel time of 75 per cent of the UK’s population and at the heart of the motorway network, while it is physically connected to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International train station offering great travel choices and linking shows with audiences across the world.
The award-winning venue team is dedicated to putting on great events, ensuring client needs and expectations are met and exceeded so they come back year after year.
Conferences & Meetings
Our five NEC Group venues are all centrally located in the heart of the UK, offering great choice to event organisers.
NEC Group venues have conference and meeting space to host from 2 to 8,000 or more delegates, and our flexible spaces offer first class facilities in custom-build conference centres and exclusive, intimate settings to meet every need.
From national conferences to regional sales meetings, immersive AGM’s to intimate board meetings, our world-class venues can accommodate all types of events and live experiences.
Download brochureLIVE ENTERTAINMENT

Our NEC Group Arenas - Utilita Arena Birmingham, formerly the Barclaycard Arena, in Birmingham city centre and Resorts World Arena on the NEC campus – are two of the busiest, large-scale indoor entertainment venues in the world, welcoming everything from music, sport and comedy, to family entertainment and live theatre.
The Arenas are famous as the home of entertainment in the Midlands, welcoming artists from One Direction, Justin Timberlake, Take That and Beyoncé, to comedians like Michael McIntyre and Lee Evans, to major sporting events such as the World Trampolining and Tumbling Championships, BMX World Championships and the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships, as well as hosting family shows such as Disney on Ice and Strictly Come Dancing.
Less well known is their capacity to host exceptional corporate events, offering the opportunity to host and entertain large numbers of delegates in unique and exciting world-class venues.
Catering
Amadeus is the NEC Group’s multi-award-winning in-house caterer delivering innovative solutions to venues and event organisers who want to provide visitors with a unique and memorable food experience.
Drawing on over 40 years' experience operating in venues and creating events as part of the NEC Group, the Amadeus team understand what options will work best for clients and their visitors. Whether it's retail, conference & banqueting or hospitality catering, Amadeus can tailor the solution to fit any event.
From healthy, fuel boosting breakfasts to light working lunches and inspiring food during breaks, to gala dinners and spectacular banquets with creative menus and theming for guests, Amadeus can offer a wide variety of choice to suit any event organiser and every dietary requirement and budget.
The Amadeus customer portfolio delivers catering solutions to around seven million visitors per year at the NEC Group venues, but the team also delivers at external events and venues, including The Scottish Open, Cadbury World, Dudley Zoo and Library of Birmingham.
Hospitality
Amplify is the premium hospitality provider for the NEC Group, offering individuals and companies the chance to experience live events in a more exclusive environment.
Amplify delivers a first-class service and an exquisite dining experience courtesy of the multi-award-winning caterer Amadeus and offers three levels of hospitality; Freestyle, Club and Air. The packages are designed to offer individuals and businesses the chance to experience live events in style, with all the fun and entertainment of standard events, but with a little added luxury to make it extra special.
Ranging from a two course meal with access to a private bar, to four course contemporary dining experiences, Amplify caters for every special occasion.
Ticketing

With over 30 years’ experience in the live events industry and as one of the UK’s leading national ticket agents, The Ticket Factory sells over 2.5 million tickets per year for a variety of events ranging from comedy, concerts and sporting events, to exhibitions, theatre performances and visitor attractions.
As the official box office for the NEC Group’s venues, The Ticket Factory also partners with major brands including Barclaycard, Virgin Trains, NUS Extra and Visit Birmingham.
The Ticket Factory thinks like an e-retailer, providing e-commerce platforms, conversion tools, payment methods and a fully functional and fully responsive website with upsells, bundles and cross sells.
The team offers a range of support services including marketing, a contact centre, box office management and RIFD as well as ticket fulfilment and dispatch, and its in-house developers are passionate about driving new ideas and being at the cutting edge of innovation.
Venue Management
NEC Group Venue Partnerships harnesses the NEC Group's expertise in managing world-class venues. It offers consultancy services and venue management to those organisations who are considering either building a new convention centre or arena, or who are revisiting their current facilities.
IN HOUSE SERVICES
The NEC Group has over 40 years of experience in the live events. We’re not just the one of the world’s top venue management companies; we also manage a range of support services and businesses that take our expertise further afield and to do that, we need specialists from behind the scenes to the main stage – here are just a few of the expert teams we work with to bring live to life.

Event Management
Event Management
Our Event Management teams are hands on with every event across all of our NEC Group venues, working on consultation and planning, management and delivery. They’ve been there, done it and got the t-shirt at everything from Spring Fair to Springsteen, Beyoncé to the Baby Show and a host of conferences, association and corporate events.

Marketing Services
Marketing Services
Creative designs, brand collateral, campaign management and execution, understanding the marketplace, industry trends, data driven programmes, communications strategy, online and digital outputs: the Marketing Services team work together to co-ordinate activity and maximise output and impact.

Health and Safety
Health and Safety
The Safety Team is made up of Safety, Food, Fire and Training professionals who are driven by an increasingly dynamic industry and a genuine passion for NEC Group staff and visitors to our venues. The team, via Oncourse, also offer a commercial training centre that delivers dynamic Health & Safety, Food and Fire training services across the U.K.

Rigging
Rigging
The NEC Group in-house rigging team offers effective design and management of rigging solutions for live events, concerts, exhibitions and conferences. The team - with 40 years’ knowledge and experience of venue and rigging practices within the events industry - offers an end to end service from installation through to removal of rigging at thousands of diverse, world class events from Crufts and One Direction, to machinery shows, AGMs and Christmas parties.

IT & Business Change
IT & Business Change
The NEC Group’s in-house IT team is made up of technical resources and event industry experts, working together to ensure that technology is fit for purpose across the business and customer experience is maximised.
The internal team manages campus-wide customer free Wi-Fi solutions and digital signage installations as well as providing project management and change support to internal teams. The team also comprises Business Relationship Managers to ensure all aspects of technology are maximised for the best of clients and customers. Technology Events Engineers support clients with all areas of exhibition, conference or arena set up including network and Wi-Fi access, exhibitor payment solutions and catering support in remote locations.

CAD
CAD
At the NEC Group we are a brilliantly diverse business offering unique experiences for our clients. As client demands are ever increasing with technology, they are always at the forefront of our event delivery. Our specialist CAD team allow clients to bring experiences and technicalities and show functionality to life through designing their events around specific client and customer needs.