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centre of attraction

The AECC is one of the North-east’s continuing success stories playing an increasingly important role in the region’s economy and just as important a role in helping to improve our quality of life through its offering of entertainment

It is a centre of entertainment, training and business and is worth more than £1.5 million a week to the Aberdeen economy.

The Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre hosts glittering evenings like the recent Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce Northern Star Business Awards as well as major business events like Offshore Europe and Brian Horsburgh, managing director, is confident that even bigger and better days lie ahead.

Regular events like Offshore Europe (which is confirmed to 2019) and the annual All Energy exhibition and conference (confirmed until 2016) continue to grow but the improving accommodation situation in the North-east is opening the door on new opportunities.

This year’s Offshore Europe was 10% bigger than the previous one and attracted 47,000 visitors, a 17% rise on 2007 which itself was a record breaker.

All Energy in May enjoyed a similar sort of increase in space and visitors and its organisers are planning a 40% increase in exhibit space for 2010.

“The big events for the energy sector, generally speaking, are all very much on the up and they are clearly our most important events,” said Mr Horsburgh. “The oil and gas sector has been affected by the whole global crisis but it is a pretty positive indication that these events are continuing to grow.

“We see the energy sector, not just oil and gas, as one of our niche markets. That, to a large extent, is what the economy of the city region is all about and it is obviously one of our major roles to act as the showcase for these industries and technologies.

“That is what we are very much about. Another event is Subsea UK in February each year which is growing all the time. The Aberdeen area is recognised as having some of the world’s leading subsea companies.

“In terms of other sectors we are very active in life sciences and medical and ocean related events.

“We have recently secured the World Marine Biodiversity Conference in 2011 and we have the British Paediatric Surgeons meeting next year as well as the International Search and Rescue Conference and Exhibition.”

Also coming in March is the annual conference of the UK Federation of Small Businesses but that was a hard fought battle because of the city’s accommodation shortage

“They were on the point of taking the conference elsewhere because of the hotel issues and we did a lot of lobbying and managed to persuade them to stay put. The Convention Bureau worked very hard with the hoteliers to make sure we were able to deliver what they needed.

“There have been some events for which we were in a position to bid but they simply said there is no point in considering bidding because we don’t believe you have the capacity.

“Our competitors pour fuel on the fire by saying: ‘You don’t want to go to Aberdeen because they have no hotel rooms’ and we have to reverse that and are making progress.

“The city accommodation problem is easing. The Malmaison and Holiday Inn Express opened here last year, Jury’s has added another 200 rooms and there are three or four others in the city centre in build at the moment and they will absolutely make a difference.”

He said that his team’s ability to bring even medium sized conferences to the city had been compromised by a lack of beds but they were now able to start targetting that business seriously again.

“It will really start to feed through next year.”

AECC has a vital entertainment role for the North-east attracting stars like Oasis and Neil Young who chose the venue for his only Scottish concert and draw fans from all over the country.

“Music events are hugely important to us as a revenue stream but they are also important in that they enable us to bring a different audience into the centre,” said Mr Horsburgh.

“The man in the street really has no connection with a marine biodiversity conference or a big oil and gas exhibition but they come in for the comedy or pop or televised darts and I think that makes the centre more relevant to the city community.

“Over the last three or four years we have established that people don’t need to go to Glasgow or Edinburgh for top concerts because we do manage to bring them into Aberdeen

“We recently secured the Gladys Knight Farewell Tour as the only Scottish venue and the last date on her UK tour, and she has Tito Jackson in support.”