Team Birmingham ready to welcome Conservatives

30th Sep 2010

Birmingham, the only UK city to have hosted all three main political parties in the last two years, is rapidly being recognised as the home of political conferencing with the return of the Conservative Party Conference.

The party will hold its autumn event at The ICC from 3 – 6 October, welcoming an estimated 14,000 delegates. This is the third party political conference to be held in Birmingham this year, and the second time the city has hosted the Conservative Party Conference.

The successful ‘Team Birmingham’ approach, which brings together the city’s agencies to host major events, has again been deployed in preparation for the 2010 conference. Partners such as Birmingham City Council, Marketing Birmingham, The NEC Group, West Midlands Police, Broad Street BID, Brindleyplace, Centro, The Hyatt Regency, City Centre Partnership and others have been working closely to ensure the event delivers maximum benefit to the city.

The approach has been further widened this year to include a Team Birmingham Fringe Programme that will present a series of fringe events targeting the visiting media, politicians and businesses. A further 12 Birmingham organisations will be involved in the programme, which will cover themes key to the city’s growth and success.

Mike Whitby, Leader of Birmingham City Council, believes that involving more city partners in the event can be beneficial:

“Attracting such a high volume of influential figures to the city provides us with a fantastic opportunity to not only promote Birmingham as a welcoming city, but also as a great business and leisure destination. We are involving more partners in the event than ever before, and I believe it will create a consistent and positive message to delegates that we are a strong, confident and professional city.”

He added:

“The impact of a conference for such as this on Birmingham’s profile cannot be underestimated. The 2008 Conservative Party conference contributed £28 million in economic and media impact to Birmingham and we expect to repeat this success in 2010.”

The ICC and connecting Hyatt Regency hotel will become a secure zone with no access to the public for the four day conference. Broad Street and Brindleyplace will remain open for business as usual, with some traffic restrictions in place. A public information leaflet has been distributed to local residents and businesses to communicate all restrictions that will be in place. It is also be available on www.conservativesinbirmingham2010.com.