Why Great Britain for Your Next Meeting or Event?
With a brand-new rail line for the capital, fresh hotel offerings, new events venues throughout the land and a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the monarch’s 70 years on the throne, there are so many reasons for meetings and incentive groups to venture across the pond once again.
Recent Updates
The Londoner has debuted in Leicester square with 350 rooms, a rooftop bar, a signature restaurant, a gastro tavern, two private screening rooms and eight meeting rooms. The property received an “excellent” rating from the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method for exceeding the requirements for energy and water use, health and well-being, pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology, and management processes.
The new 237-room One Bishopsgate Plaza, Pan Pacific London has nine meeting rooms, including a ballroom that seats 400 guests, plus a gym, a mindfulness studio and an infinity pool with views over the plaza.
The city’s largest convention facility, ExCeL London, is building a 250,000-square-foot addition, which includes 130,000 square feet of exhibit space, 38 meeting rooms and more. The new spaces will be completed in 2024.
Work has started on a $1.23 billion expansion of the Olympia London convention venue. The project, also scheduled for completion in 2024, includes two hotels and a live-music venue. The Olympia Central Hall will be torn down, and the Olympia National and Olympia Grand buildings will be incorporated into the new plan.
Travel Essentials
Meeting Hotels: The city’s largest hotel is the 1,059-room Hilton London Metropole. To find and compare hotels, and send RFPs, visit Northstar Meetings Group’s venue finder.
Convention Center: ExCel London;
exhibit space, 1,060,000 square feet; number of meeting rooms, 90
Airport Transit: Heathrow
Airport, 17 miles from Central London. Transfer cost by Heathrow Express train
to London Paddington station, $31; by taxi, from $54; by Uber, from $34
Taxes: Room tax, 20% VAT; taxes on all goods and services in the U.K., 20%; total tax on hotel rooms, 20%
Group Venue: Hold an event where the British government met during the Second World War. The Churchill War Rooms, which accommodate up to 200 guests, have been preserved and restored to look just as they did in the 1940s, when the man himself was holding court.
Contact: Visit Britain; London Convention Bureau
More Great Britain Meeting and Event Updates
When opened in 1894, the Blackpool Tower was the tallest man-made structure in England. In Blackpool, the new Blackpool Conference and Exhibition Centre
in the historical Blackpool Winter Gardens opened in March 2022. The venue has
25,400 square feet of meetings and event space.
The Sage, a new venue at Gateshead Quayside, will open in 2024 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The facility will have 30,000 square feet of meeting space, 82,000 square feet
of exhibit space, a 12,500-seat arena and two on-site hotels.
NEC Birmingham, the U.K.’s largest event space, is adding a
148,000-square-foot outdoor facility, a hotel and more. The NEC has upgraded
its technology and is using WaitTime, which shows real-time capacity and crowd
density.