Nottingham’s official conference bureau, Meet in Nottingham, will showcase the city to event professionals at MeetEngland Virtual on the 9th and 11th February 2021. This new virtual tradeshow for the business events sector will focus on events in a post-COVID world, encouraging event professionals to reboot, refresh and reimagine their business events in England.
Nottingham’s virtual exhibition booth will help inspire international event professionals to bring their events to the city. A green city with a legendary past, a vibrant culture and a bright future – and home to famous outlaw Robin Hood – it also boasts a diverse range of conference venues, from the 10,000 capacity Motorpoint Arena to the newly refurbished state-of-the-art East Midlands Conference Centre to the historic Nottingham Castle reopening in 2021 after a major £30m refurbishment. The Nottingham team will showcase how these venues can be adapted for innovative virtual or hybrid events, which combine both in-person and virtual elements, and have increased in popularity due to the pandemic and the restrictions imposed on in-person meetings.
Part of the tourist board Visit Nottinghamshire, Meet in Nottingham’s role is to help companies, event organisers and associations from all over the globe to find and book world-class venues across Nottingham. The team are keen to create long-lasting business connections during their one-to-one meetings with event organisers, which could help to bring huge benefits to the city over the coming months and years and support its economic recovery from COVID-19.
Large-scale events can generate hundreds of thousands of pounds for the local economy through the booking of conference venues, accommodation and other local businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors. Although such events cannot take place at present, they are often planned several years in advance – meaning that Meet in Nottingham’s presence at the event will help the city to secure a stream of pipeline business to support the recovery of the local economy in the coming years.
Interim Chief Executive of Marketing Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Robert Dixon, said:
“The events and conferences sector is very important for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, with overnight stays by business travellers bringing an estimated £471m to the local economy each year – so our events and hospitality venues have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic and have faced a prolonged loss of income since restrictions were imposed.”
“We are keen to support the recovery of this sector by taking every opportunity to position Nottingham as a key destination for conferences, informing and inspiring international events planners to bring their events here as soon as it is safe to do so. The innovative format of MeetEngland opens up new possibilities with events organisers from all over the world and gives us a fantastic platform to showcase the very best of our city, and we look forward to having some very positive and productive meetings throughout the course of this event.”
Chair of VisitEngland Nick de Bois said:
“Our priority remains to reassure event planners, delegates and suppliers that our planning towards future recovery continues. MeetEngland Virtual has been designed to inform buyers on England’s business events offering and to highlight the innovation of our sector as we adapt to new ways of working while still ensuring a fantastic business events experience.”
VisitBritain Head of Business Events, Kerrin MacPhie said:
“Using tried and tested software MeetEngland Virtual will provide event professionals with the opportunity to connect and forge valuable business relationships with destinations across England. By supporting the sector now to reimagine their events in England we can drive future growth, keeping us top of the list and front of mind as a leading destination for business events.”
Register for the event and book an appointment with the team here https://www.visitengland.com/business
