Conference objective: 

The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) is now the UK’s largest industry event for the built environment and investment industries. The conference aims to drive economic growth and connect the public sector, to investors, funders, developers, housebuilders and end-users – helping to forge relationships that generate inward investment, support regeneration and drive inclusive economic growth. The annual forum aims to connect people, places and businesses to accelerate and unlock sustainable, inclusive and transformational investment that will be game changing for the UK with a huge focus on creating welcoming, inclusive and diverse environments.  

The event:

Known as the largest real estate conference of its kind in the UK, this year’s UKREiiF welcomed thousands of domestic and international senior political figures, developers, investors, councils, and real estate and infrastructure leaders in full venue takeover of the Royal Armouries and Leeds Dock. 

Showcasing Leeds as a dynamic business hub filled with innovation and investment, the conference included 7,500 attendees, 500 speakers across 20+ stages and 150 exhibitors located in two exhibition halls; New Dock Hall and Royal Armouries Hall. Over 12 marquees were erected across the wider site. In addition 100 fringe events took place over four days in the city, attracting a further 2,500 delegates, as well as study tours placing a spotlight on key regeneration sites across the city. 

The beginning of the three-day conference was marked by The Festival of Achievement held at Millennium Square in the city centre. A vibrant and inclusive awards ceremony, the festival recognised innovation and inspirational leadership in the industry and offered delegates pop-up street food and drink.  

The 2023 UKREiiF conference welcomed 7,500 official delegates and 2,500 unofficial attendees who attended fringe events, and brought in an estimated £12.1m to the local Leeds economy over the three day period. UKREiiF originally came to the city in 2022 and within two years has established itself as a must-attend event for the industry, while showcasing the city’s vibrant resilient development and regeneration market

UKREiiF calculated the top facts of how much the conference benefited Leeds, which included: 

• 11,663 bed nights being taken in hotels in Leeds
• £4.5m spent on food and drink, accommodation, shopping and entertainment by visitors
• Almost £7.2m of direct economic impact
• £12.1m of total wider economic impact
• £2.3m generated in social impact

The city is very much looking forward to welcoming its return in 2024 for an even bigger and better event, which is a true testament to the growing and impressive reputation of Leeds within the real estate industry. In 2024, there will be a great opportunity for Leeds to continue to showcase itself as an adapting and innovative city that has ambitious plans for a greener and sustainable future.

Nathan Spencer, Director at UKREiiF, said: “When choosing a destination to host UKREiiF there were many options, but Leeds ticked many boxes for us. It obviously boasts good transport links and a central location to the UK is always beneficial in hosting a national event. Outside of this, Leeds really shone through as a perfect city.

“The ongoing regeneration is transforming the city, with a thriving retail district, three universities adding vibrancy to the nightlife scene we wished to create, and an abundance of expertise within the public and private sector organisations working in the city that couldn’t be ignored. 

“The city has seemed perfectly designed for UKREiiF with only positive experiences about the city itself – from the exceptional use of water around the Leeds Dock site including the water taxi, to the historical and architectural gems such as the Arcades, the Tetley and the Corn Exchange crafted into more modern surroundings. 

“We’ve successfully established UKREiiF as the UK’s leading event for the regeneration, development and wider built environment sectors and a key factor in this has been both the city and the people that work within it.  And that’s a key reason why we’ve selected Leeds once again for our 2024 host city.”

Local Organising Committee: Child in the City

Conference objective:

Child in the City is a global organisation dedicated to promoting the rights and wellbeing of children across the globe. The fourth Child in the City International Seminar brought together experts, policymakers, children’s professionals, university lecturers, researchers and city planners from all over the world to share their knowledge and research on child-friendly cities, with this year’s discussion point being ‘Child poverty in western cities.’

The event:

Experts and policymakers from the field of child services gathered in Leeds for the fourth Child in the City International Seminar in November. This forms as part of a bigger conversation at the International Child in the City World Conference, which is held biennially in a different city around the world.

This year’s Child in the City International Seminar, which was held at The Met Hotel in Leeds, created opportunities for academics, officials and policymakers from across Europe and beyond. The seminar involved the sharing of research, innovation and good practice from various disciplines and policies that affect the lives of children in towns and cities.

Each international seminar focuses on a particular theme to progress the advancement of child-friendly environments, communities and services within the public realm. Children’s professionals, play-workers, city planners, landscape architects and policymakers attended the conference in Leeds to discuss educational environments, urban segregation and marginalisation, as well as child poverty lessons learnt from two case study cities, Dortmund and Madrid.

Delegates were welcomed to the city with a cocktail reception at Leeds Art Gallery and a networking dinner at The Met Hotel, a Grade II listed building which was designed by Leeds architects, Harry Sutton Chorley and J.W. Connon, and opened in 1899. During the two-day conference, delegates had the opportunity to attend several field trips to visit community groups and local businesses from across the city that are dedicated to improving the quality of life for children living in Leeds. These included Getaway Girls which empower girls and young women by helping them develop new skills in supportive environments, Catch, which delivers youth volunteering opportunities in safe spaces, and Leeds Rhinos Foundation which harnesses the power of sport to make a positive impact on the lives of young people.

The conference also included a keynote speech from Gill Main, Associate Professor in Childhood Studies in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, which gave delegates an insight into the impacts child poverty has on children, families, communities and society as a whole, and how city-wide anti-poverty work can address this. Andy Lloyd, Head of Children’s Workforce Development in Leeds Children’s Services and Sue Rumbold, Chief Officer of Leeds Children’s Services also delivered an insightful session, offering an insight into the journey that the city of Leeds and the small town of Hoogeveen in the Netherlands have been on, after working closely together to become child-friendly areas.

Leeds’ inspiration to pursue its child-friendly city ambition came from the Child Friendly Cities work carried out by UNICEF, which was launched in 1996 to encourage cities to become more liveable places for children and young people, and guarantee their right to essential services by empowering them to have their voice heard and influence decisions being made that affect them. As part of the initiative, Child Friendly Leeds has established a growing network of ambassadors who make financial and in-kind contributions to improve the lives of children and young people in Leeds and has supported the Independent Visit scheme for ‘children looked after’ in Leeds. This has resulted in an increase of volunteers in the city, with over 50 schools in Leeds becoming accredited in the Investors in Pupils programme. The Leeds Youth Council has also developed a network of over 400 young people living in Leeds who are passionate about making a difference in the city.

Karen Murgatroyd, Head of International Relations at Leeds City Council commented: “We were thrilled to welcome the fourth Child in the City International Seminar to Leeds last November.  The City is a hub for innovation, education and culture, which made The Met Hotel and Leeds Art Gallery ideal venues for the delegates to visit. It was wonderful to see experts from Leeds and across the globe come together to develop restorative research, practices and solutions that will continue to improve the safety and quality of life led by children in towns and cities across the world.”

Local organising committee: Naved Alizai, Becky Lisseter, Helen Carter

ConferenceLeeds welcomed the 19th annual British Association of Paediatric Endoscopic Surgeons (BAPES) scientific meeting to the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the 7 and 8 November 2019. This annual event, visited Leeds, bringing over 120 delegates to the city to discuss new developments in robotics and paediatric keyhole surgery. The conference was preceded by a workshop at Leeds General Infirmary on the 6th of November.

The BAPES2019 scientific programme is an educational conference which aims to help professionals in the sector develop and improve surgical techniques, learn new ways of working, network with leaders in the field and develop their careers. The 2019 conference offered a new and varied conference programme, which for the first time covered a spectrum of paediatric minimally invasive and robotic surgery. In addition to posters and presentations of scientific papers, the programme highlights included robotic vs laparoscopic debates, how-to sessions with invited experts, medico-legal and education sessions and the inaugural BAPES university challenge quiz.

The largest discussion point at the conference was robotic surgery, with the conference featuring a talk on robotic and laparoscopic surgery from Naved Alizai, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and ex-president of the British Association of Paediatric Endoscopic Surgeons (BAPES). Naved, who is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds and an Honorary Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Suzhou in China,provided delegates with insight designed to improve outcomes for infants and children undergoing minimally invasive surgery, and will also included a robotic simulation as part of the session.

Naved Alizai said: “We’re grateful to ConferenceLeeds for all of their work helping us to organise the conference this year, working closely with us to secure the venue, which is perfect for us as it’s so central and has a wide range of quality hotels within walking distance. Finally, we were able to provide all of this at such good value due to the rates available in Leeds, which helped delegates from all levels attend.”

Leeds has always been a leader in Paediatric Keyhole and Robotic Surgery on an international scale. The founding member of BAPES, Azad Najmaldin, regarded as the father of keyhole surgery for children in UK by some, worked at Leeds Children’s Hospital. The robotic service for children in Leeds is the largest robotic centre in the world and offers procedures not offered in any other unit. Mr Naved Alizai is the only proctor of Paediatric Robotic General Surgery for Europe, with the only other proctor for paediatric robotic urology also working in Leeds.

Established in 1999, BAPES seeks to improve standards in paediatric minimally invasive surgery by promoting research and learning opportunities. The organisation has instituted a number of fellowships and awards to encourage study in paediatric minimally invasive surgery. BAPES support their members in their professional development by organising advanced training and scholarship courses designed to improve outcomes for infants and children undergoing minimally invasive surgery.

Local Organising Committee: Tom Knowland, Leeds City Council, Jeremy Laycock Campbell, University of Leeds

A brand new conference was held in Leeds on the 27th and 28th of June, with the arrival of the inaugural National Hydrogen Summit at Cloth Hall Court and Leeds Civic Hall. The conference, which was the first of its kind, brought together 260 delegates from industry, academia and politics to develop a cohesive voice for hydrogen and create a committed policy to help reduce carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2050, in line with government proposals.

The National Hydrogen Summit was organised by Leeds City Council in partnership with the University of Leeds and was opened by Councillor Judith Blake, who welcomed delegates and stakeholders to the city to discuss the decarbonisation of the UK’s energy systems.

The conference, which aims to become an annual event which will be hosted around the country, inspired conversation though a mixture of presentations, plenary sessions, workshops and keynote speeches delivered by Rachel Reeves MP; Jon Saltmarsh, the Head of Technical Energy Analysis at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ; Mark Horsley, Chief Executive of Northern Gas Networks; Tony Green, Head of Engineering & Asset Management at the National Grid and Professor Joe Howe, Executive Director of the Thornton Energy Institute.

Tom Knowland, Head of Sustainable Energy and Climate Change at Leeds City Council, said: “We were excited to host the first ever National Hydrogen Summit conference in Leeds this year as a homegrown event in partnership with the university. We were really pleased with the success of the event and we hope to continue to bring the summit to delegates across the UK over the coming years. We’re incredibly grateful that ConferenceLeeds were on hand to help organise the logistics of the summit and provided great support with the provision of delegate information and accommodation booking.”

Claire Heap, Head of ConferenceLeeds, commented: “We were thrilled to welcome the first ever National Hydrogen Summit to Leeds to kick start our busy summer conferencing season. Once again, this conference evidences the city’s dedication to tackle carbon emissions and help to decarbonise the UK energy sector, which in turn is helping the initiatives outlined in the Climate Change Act 2008 become more achievable. We were honoured to help the team at the National Hydrogen Summit to organise the conference, and we hope the event will return to the city soon!”