Pictured: Southwater Event Group chief executive, Tom Gray,
celebrates the opening of the new suite with guest speaker, Olympic
medal winning athlete Roger Black
Visitors to a gala VIP weekend held in Telford and Shropshire
were the first to get a glimpse of brand new facilities at a
leading conference and event venue.
More than 150 of the most important buyers in the events
industry took part in a familiarisation tour of the destination -
and the highlight of the Discover 2011 weekend was a black-tie gala
dinner at The International Centre.
The special guests were the very first to experience the
hospitality in the venue's brand new Ludlow Suite and they were all
incredibly impressed with what they saw.
Southwater Event Group chief executive, Tom Gray, said the new
suite was a 1300sq m events space with additional seminar rooms and
a dedicated banqueting kitchen to serve the new facilities. It also
has an amazing floor to ceiling glass wall.
"The new suite means The International Centre now has over
15,000sq m of event space and can offer greater flexibility and
capacity to host all kinds of events from small boardroom meetings
right through to large scale conferences and exhibitions.
"We were very pleased to be able to unveil this impressive new
suite to such a high profile audience, and to welcome such special
guests to our gala launch dinner.
"The VIP weekend has been a great success and we're very proud
to have worked so closely with Telford & Shropshire Conferences
to achieve such an excellent result."
Telford & Shropshire Conferences is the official convention
bureau for the area and delivers business tourism services on
behalf of Telford & Wrekin Council.
Southwater Event Group owns The International Centre,
Telford, and is also made up of The Holiday Inn, International
Hotel, Grays Hotel, and an in-house production company,
Stagecraftuk.
The unveiling of the new Ludlow Suite signals the start of the
next phase of work to develop a thriving night-time economy at the
heart of the town.
Southwater Event Group is working in partnership with Telford
& Wrekin Council to deliver the new area through ambitious
£250 million redevelopment plans to create a new convention
quarter in the town, which will include a selection of new bars,
restaurants and hotels.