HIC Talk

Harrogate International Centre (HIC), one of the most impressively integrated conference, exhibition and events venues in Europe has appointed two new staff members, Tracey Garrett and Rebecca Turnbull, to strengthen its sales and marketing team.

Angus Houston, director of the HIC said: “We welcome the new members to HIC’s dynamic team. Both Tracey and Rebecca have a wide range of experience and we look forward to their influence and dynamism in promoting HIC. They join at a hugely exciting phase in our development, just as our £11 million capital investment is underway which will see the opening of two new exhibition halls. It is a challenging time for the event industry as the market looks fiercely competitive. We are confident that the investment in our sales and marketing team will pay dividends as we look forward to an exciting future in the business.” Read the rest of this entry »

2011 marks 50 golden years of the Home and Gift trade show at the Harrogate International Centre (HIC) bringing almost £6 million to the local economy each year.

The HIC and the town will be buzzing from 17 to 20 July when 17 venues, including all eight exhibition halls at HIC, will be welcoming over 12,000 visitors and buyers from 39 countries.

As the largest annual trade show to be held at the HIC  with exhibitors selling giftware, home accessories, fashion, greetings and stationery for the autumn season, it is crucial for retailers who want to beat the rush and stock up with inspired purchases for the Christmas and New Year period.

The event is organised by Clarion Events, the UK’s largest independent exhibition organiser. As a testament to the show’s growth over the years and its success in becoming an exhibition of choice for manufacturers and retailers, more than 900 exhibitors will attend this year’s show. Read the rest of this entry »

Exciting developments at HIC as organisations book into the next decade…

Despite the current economic situation, many companies are forward planning years and sometimes decades ahead. With Harrogate International Centre (HIC) due to open new exhibition halls in 2011, it’s been a busy time for Sales Account Executive Nadene Lennon, who deals with Future Years bookings as well as the Associations sector. HIC and Harrogate have a very special relationship, with each feeding business to the other, and Nadine knows that without HIC, Harrogate would be a very different place – and without Harrogate, HIC wouldn’t be able to provide such an unique location for exhibitions and events.

Recently, Nadene has been very busy organising familiarisation visits – known as “fam visits”. Tailored to meet each client’s requirements, familiarisation visits give exhibition and event organisers the chance to experience HIC and Harrogate for themselves. Prospective clients are collected from nearby York, Leeds or Harrogate railway stations and given a tour around HIC. They also visit Harrogate and are shown around some of the hotels that will provide accommodation to delegates. The visit normally takes in lunch and sometimes dinner at one or more of the hotels, so that prospective clients can sample the food and view the rooms that delegates will stay in. It’s a fantastic opportunity for event organisers to find out exactly what Harrogate and HIC has to offer, and it is proving really helpful in securing new clients for HIC.

The familiarisation visits have led to some exciting bookings for Nadene, with one organisation booking HIC as one of three venues they will be using on a rotating basis in a ten year plan, with the third event booked for 2022! Another big booking is a series of three annual medical sector exhibitions between 2012 and 2014.

However, perhaps the most exciting booking Nadene has secured recently is one that will use the entire venue, including the new halls opening in 2011. Expected to attract over 3,000 delegates, the event should fill all the hotels in Harrogate and beyond, and it will deliver a huge boost to the local economy.  It will also add weight to Harrogate’s position at the heart of our knowledge economy as participants develop plans that will change the face of the medical industry for years to come.  In fact, this event will once again demonstrate the power of meetings and face to face experience – not just as a local economic stimulus and revenue line in  a venue and several hotel’s accounts – but as an influencer on global policy and the lives of real people.

With an additional 3,300 sq m of floor space, improved access to the conference centre and better green credentials, Nadene hopes that the new halls will encourage even more organisations to consider HIC in the years to come.