Liverpool named among the world’s best conference venues

May 18 2009 by Ben Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL was last night named among the world’s best conference venues.

For the first time, the city was ranked in the top 100 in international league tables published by the International Congress and Convention Association.

The ICCA tables – widely regarded as “the industry” Bible” – showed Liverpool jumped a massive 44 places in its Capital of Culture year and is now ranked 86th out of 300 global destinations.

The tables also showed Liverpool broke into the highly-competitive Europe top 50 and is now in the UK’s top five as a major conference destination.

It means the city is ranked a more desirable host than other major destinations, such as New York and Moscow, which both scraped in at joint 100th place.

Delighted city leaders credited the Echo Arena and its neighbouring BT Convention Centre for playing a huge part in the success.

Liverpool’s record place in the league table is based on a complicated formula.

To gain its ranking, it was judged to have hosted 18 events which met criteria ranging from attracting a minimum of 50 delegates, not being an “ad hoc” arrangement and rotating between at least three different countries.

It is estimated the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre contributed £200m to Liverpool’s economy in its first year in 2008.

The venue saw 700,000 people pass through its doors in the first 12 months alone.

The waterfront arena, officially opened by the Queen in May, had 200 days of activity during the year.