Meet Blackpool launched to drive conference bookings

Winter Gardens Blackpool, Visit Blackpool and Blackpool Council have launched a new partnership to showcase the seaside resort as a destination for large-scale events and conferences.

Meet Blackpool will provide a single point of contact to simplify and streamline the generation and management of conference and visitor enquiries. The offer is based around the new £30m Winter Gardens Blackpool Conference & Exhibition Centre.

The venue is now the largest venue of its kind in the north of England, providing 2,400sq m of event space to accommodate 2,000 visitors over two floors which, when integrated with the wider Winter Gardens complex, creates an overall delegate capacity of 7,000. The centre opened earlier this year and hosted the Conservative Party Spring Conference as its inaugural event.

With the addition of the new Conference & Exhibition Centre, the full Winter Gardens Blackpool complex provides 12 distinct venues, all under one roof, offering a total of 4.9 acres of connected conference, meeting, event and exhibition space.

Meet Blackpool will also promote the £500m of investment into the town over the last five years, which includes the build of three brand new purpose-built hotels, development of the seafront tramway and an investment in national rail connectivity.

The venture will launch at The Meetings Show, Stand 54, ExCel London, on 29 and 30 June.

Michael Williams, managing director of the Winter Gardens, said: “The Conference & Exhibition Centre puts Blackpool firmly back on the conference and exhibitions map for customers from across the UK and the world.

“Meet Blackpool has been launched to ensure the venue offer is fully backed and integrated with the town’s wider infrastructure and we are proud to be launching it at this year’s Meetings Show, where it will be showcased to events professionals from across the globe.”