NEC duo promoted after conferencing venues pull in more than £5m

Birmingham’s International Convention Centre and its sister site, the Vox conference centre at the Resorts World Birmingham complex have generated combined revenues in excess of £5m for parent, The NEC Group.

Between them, the two venues have staged 230 banqueting events during the past 12 months, attended by a combined delegate list of 71,500 people.

In recognition of the achievement, two members of the venues’ sales team have received promotions.

Maria Mawston has been promoted to Senior Banqueting Sales Manager at the ICC and colleague Emma Peplow has been made Banqueting Sales Manager for the Vox.

James Elston, Sales Director of the ICC and Vox, said: “Standalone banqueting is very important to our venues. It not only helps to keep our venues busy in the evenings and over weekends, but it also plays a vital role in the local economy.

“With tens of thousands of delegates visiting our venues annually for banquets, this only has a positive impact on the surrounding hotels, bars and restaurants in the city centre and on the NEC campus where the Vox is part of Resorts World.”

He said the banqueting space was taking on added significance because of the growing number of charity events being held at the venues.

“Maria and Emma do a fantastic job of being able to manage the venue diaries so we can host as many banquets as possible for our clients. Their promotions were well deserved and we wanted to ensure they were recognised for the contribution to our business,” added Mr Elston.

To ensure the conferencing offer remains competitive, the group has recently invested £140,000 in a new range of table top lighting equipment. The new tableware, including crockery based around free flowing, organic concepts, is intended to complement a new style of food offer from in-house caterer Amadeus.