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Conference Leeds celebrates over £1.4 million of venue investment across the city

ConferenceLeeds is celebrating a number of recent venue investments, which has seen over £1.4 million being spent towards improving the city’s facilities. The investments include the introduction of a collaborative meeting space at Horizon, significant bedroom refurbishments at the Holiday Inn Express and the unveiling of a recently or freshly designed lecture theatre at Leeds Art Gallery.

Leeds’ conferencing venues have seen considerable investment this year, all of which work to enhance the city’s appeal as a business meeting and events destination.

Horizon Leeds is leading the way in the digital sector, investing in a technological overhaul with new meeting room equipment. Their new space includes an update to the traditional SMART board, seeing a new Avocor touch screen installed. The new touchscreen technology has transformed their collaborative meeting spaces, enabling enhanced features for speakers and presentations. Created by the NHS Confederation, Horizon Leeds’ mission is to be the leading provider and champion for digitally led conference and training facilities, and this transformation new investment enables them to remain at the forefront of digital excellence.

Holiday Inn Express close to the Leeds Armouries has undergone refurbishment with over £1 million being spent to improve key areas of the hotel. New lighting, carpets and soft furnishings have transformed the bar, restaurant and bedrooms and a new concept coffee shop is also being implemented in a bid to improve customer satisfaction with both business travellers and visitor guests alike.

Leeds’ cultural venues have also continued to develop and thrive, with Leeds City Museum (LCM) and Leeds Art Gallery (LAG) having invested over £46,000 to refurbish and refit their conference and events spaces. With support from Arts Council England, the historic spaces have benefitted from noise-reducing flooring, updated furniture and refreshed colour palettes to create light and airy learning spaces.

The DoubleTree by Hilton in Leeds city centre has also been subject to significant change, following a £400,000 investment. New carpets, feature walls and artworks have been installed in an attempt to boost the productivity and the inspirational thinking of users in this space. The hotel has also refreshed its food and drinks offering, answering a demand for flexibility whilst creating a menu designed to surprise guests, stimulate the mind and create an experience that’s truly memorable.

Claire Heap, Head of ConferenceLeeds, commented: “Leeds is a growing digital city, after recently being named the 2nd most popular conferencing city in the North of England, according to the 2017 BMEIS report. To maintain this high standard, it is extremely important that Leeds venues offer the highest quality facilities for delegates to experience and enjoy. Our venues aim to not only provide world-class conferencing venues, but to also provide exceptional accommodation and experiences to delegates, in order to make a conferencing visit to Leeds truly remarkable in every way.

These are only a few examples of venue investments in Leeds this year, with further large-scale projects planned in, including new venues being added to our portfolio, such as a third Hilton hotel which is set to open in 2019.”