London's QE II Conference Centre Enlarging Mtg. Space
<H1> London's QE II Conference Centre Enlarging Mtg. Space</H1>By Lauren Bielski
<B>T</B>he Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre is undergoing a two-year renovation to keep up with the increasingly competitive London conference market.
When the upgrade is complete, the seven-story, 50,554-square-foot facility in the Westminster district will be able to accommodate a greater number of small and midsized groups (around 200 to 1,000 people). The center also seeks to capture international market share from larger venues in secondary British cities such as the NEC exhibit hall in Birmingham, according to Peter Glover, head of business travel for the British Tourist Authority.
<B>Seeking Market Share
</B>The United Kingdom attracts nearly half a million delegates annually, and London captures about 58 percent of that market and takes about 56 percent of all conference income, Glover said. But London recently began losing ground to other industrial locations that can accommodate groups of about 3,000.
Reconfiguration of the QE II's public space-in some cases removing public gathering areas that could be better used as meeting space-will add square footage to the 30 conference rooms.
The renovation, which began last month, comes at a time when the QE II is seeking to compete with nearby luxury properties such as Grovesnor House, the London Hilton and the London Metropole. QE II also hopes to partner with hotels that are equipped with smaller meeting rooms but lack extensive exhibit space.
The British government built the facility in 1986 to host government and special events. In 1991, the government assembled a professional management team that began hosting private functions for profit. The QE II handled about 700 such events in fiscal 1994-95 and generated about $9.2 million. In 1995, 20 of the London Times' Top 100 companies held their annual shareholders meetings at the center.
<B>From Govt. To Corporate
</B>"We were operating on a trial basis from 1991 to 1995 as part of an effort to slowly convert the majority of the conference center's business from government affairs to private industry," said the center's commercial director, Gill Price. "Now we are positioning ourselves to capture a significant share of growing international demand as well."
Price said that most of the hotels and facilities in London had undergone renovations in an effort to attract more business.
Barbara Boyle, accommodations operations administrator at the London Convention Center, said that the stakes in the U.K. conference market are higher today, with Britain's more industrial cities competing head-on with its capital.
Her office, which handles the North American market, saw both an upturn in requests for proposals and repeat business in the corporate and incentive market. "Everyone is rushing to get in here during high season [April, May and June]," she said. "Our problem has been accommodating them during that exceedingly busy time."
QE II management hopes that boosting quality will make up for the center's relative lack of square footage.
"There will always be international groups and associations that want the cachet of a capital city," Glover explained. "Even though we are behind major U.S. cities like New York, we are still very competitive."
The QE II's plans to follow up last year's improvements to its freight elevator system were announced when the management team received word that it would continue running the facility. Following an intense bidding process, the team, headed by chief executive Marcus Buck, won a five-year contract based on its performance and request for proposal-which included the recommendation to update the facility.
"Everyone is seeking to get value in the conference market, and we have worked diligently to secure our position," Price said. To that end, the facility has invested heavily in technology and security systems, offering ISDN videoconferencing, a betacam editing suite, comprehensive audiovisual equipment and simultaneous translation.