Conservative Party Autumn Conference 2010
The Conservative Party Conference took place at The ICC in Birmingham from 3rd – 6th October 2010. The conference was of significant importance to the party, being their first conference since they came to power in mid 2010, and it attracted a staggering 14,000 delegates and over 2,000 of the world’s media.
The Team Birmingham approach again was central to the success of the conference, with key city organisations working together to ensure the event delivered maximum benefit to the city and the delegates. Over 30 organisations worked in unison, with regular operational and communications planning meetings taking place well in advance of the conference, to ensure the event ran smoothly.
The event brought significant economic and media impact to the city. Using the VisitBritain delegate expenditure research, it has been calculated that the event brought to the city an economic impact of £18,405,296, taking into consideration factors including expenditure in hotels, restaurants and attractions.
A media strategy had been carefully created by the Team Birmingham communications group, to promote both the conference and the city. PR activity, including targeting local and regional media, trade and national media was used to reinforce positive messaging about Birmingham and the conference. As part of the overall strategy, a bespoke fringe programme of 12 events was also run through Team Birmingham, which allowed for the city to outline the key issues currently influencing Birmingham’s policy agenda, to the top tiers of the government.
Total global media value was calculated at £28,881,000. Adding this to the total economic impact, the total event impact was determined to be £47,286,296.
Birmingham Convention Bureau and Meet Birmingham, in conjunction with Team Birmingham, offered event support both before and during the conference. A dedicated website was created at www.conservativesinbirmingham2010.com which allowed delegates to book accommodation and access travel information, exclusive discounts for use it the city and other useful information to make their stay in Birmingham enjoyable and hassle-free. City dressing was employed to create a welcome to delegates, and conference transport was run, ensuring delegates could travel conveniently between their accommodation and the conference.
Birmingham Convention Bureau were also on site during the conference, offering support to delegates on accommodation and city information, and were also located in New Street Station, providing an information point and a friendly welcome to the delegates.
The city’s success as a political conference host is set to continue with the Liberal Democrats autumn conference in 2011, and the return of the Conservative Party autumn conference in 2012.
Leader of Birmingham Council, Cllr Mike Whitby said:
“The Conservative Party Conference provided a huge economic benefit to the city and to our local businesses. I am particularly impressed by the amount of positive media coverage, national and international, Birmingham received, enabling us to showcase what Birmingham has to offer not only as a conference venue but as a destination city.”
Ian Taylor, Commercial Director, Marketing Birmingham, commented:
“Birmingham has built huge momentum as a host for major high profile events and this is evidenced by the Conservative Party Conference, the first time the city has hosted a major autumn conference for the party in power. The fact that this is their first conference since being in government no doubt boosted the delegate numbers and media profile considerably – but the city simply stepped up to the plate, worked together in partnership, and delivered the conference without a hitch. This has truly cemented our position as the conference city of Europe.”
Geoff Fenlon, General Manager, The ICC Birmingham, said:
“High-profile conference events such as this provide us with an opportunity to demonstrate the flexibility of the venue and commitment of the team that we bring to each and every event staged at The ICC.”
“As well as the main speeches and sessions, our teams also looked after over 400 smaller, individual fringe meetings – ranging in size from a dinner for 30 up to a meeting for 600 -across the four days of the conference – roughly the same number of events that we host at The ICC every year.”
