Katie Spackman, Director of Membership and Marketing at the Association of Association Executives (AEE), explains how Manchester Central was the ideal venue for their 2017 event…
“The Associations UK Congress is an annual congress consisting of a 2-day event specifically for employees, officers and leaders of associations, societies or federations from the scientific, medical, trade or professional sectors. AAE is the largest growing community of association executives in Europe and in the UK. Bringing together Executive Directors, CEOs and senior executives, the programme covers the most urgent and current issues faced by associations, such as revenue, recruitment, technology, events and marketing.
The event maximized Manchester Central’s vast floor space, selectively making great use of the Gallery, Exchange Rooms and Charter Rooms. The layout for the exhibition was fantastic – the space doubled as a networking area during break times, which provided our business partners with much more exposure to our delegates - it was fantastic!
The rooms for the plenary and streams were equally well thought out and there were always plenty of Manchester Central staff on hand to direct our delegates. The spaces were extremely flexible and really suited our style of exhibition.
The location of the event this year was perfect for the Congress - it was an ideal place to host our event because it is an iconic venue in the heart of Manchester, with easy routes in and out of the city. Manchester is also an extremely friendly city and at the time we held our event, in December, the Christmas market and the beautiful lights created a fun and festive atmosphere!
There’s a lot more to discover about Manchester as well. We visited the Lowry Gallery and it was magnificent to see the artist’s work. The shopping and night life is also great, not to mention that it was so easy to come by train - straight to the venue and our hotels. Everything is so close in Manchester – there are no long taxi journeys or train rides and you could literally walk from place to place.
The Manchester Central team were extremely professional, helpful and essentially an excellent events team. There are always challenges with any event, but this team were there to support us in the planning and delivery every step of the way. We had regular meetings with the operations team and the marketing team and because we all worked well together, anything that could have become a challenge, didn’t. This is how we prefer to work with our hosts and I’m sure all event organisers feel the same way. Well done to Team Manchester Central!”