ABERDEEN CONVENTION BUREAU SECURES CONFERENCES WORTH MORE THAN £1MILLION TO THE NORTH-EAST ECONOMY 14/06/11

Aberdeen Convention Bureau has secured a raft of new conferences for the city, which will inject more than £1million into the local economy and bring hundreds of delegates to the North-east.

 The Global Business Travel Association is to hold its Oil, Gas and Marine Travel Conference at the Thistle Aberdeen Altens Hotel in October this year, attracting 110 delegates over two days.

 The Universities' Travel Studies Group (UTSG) Conference was secured for January 4-6, 2012, which will bring up to 130 delegates to the University of Aberdeen. The event was won with the help of Professor John Nelson, who is one of the bureau's team of academic ambassadors.

The bureau has also confirmed the 2015 International Conference on the Bioscience of Lipids (ICBL) for Aberdeen, expected to draw up to 400 people.

 The Society of Core Analysts (SCA), which is to hold its annual symposium in Aberdeen for the first time in October 2012, opted for the Granite City instead of returning to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the city's position as a strong destination for business tourism.

 The five-day symposium was secured with the help of ambassadors Mrs Izaskun Zubizarreta and Mr Craig Lindsay, who persuaded the board to choose Aberdeen as its destination.

 Alesia du Plessis, conference support manager at Aberdeen Convention Bureau, said the decision of the SCA to come to Aberdeen cemented its reputation as a conference destination.

"These new wins show the strength of the business tourism sector, and its growing importance to the local economy," she said.

"We are now better able to compete internationally for conferences, thanks to recent investments which have resulted in increased bedrooms, new hotel and conference facilities and major developments such as the Trump golf resort and improved links from Aberdeen Airport.

 "However, the new conferences are not only important to the region in economic terms, they also put the spotlight on the wide-range of expertise that is so prevalent throughout the region, from energy to life sciences and food and drink."

 Bas Schipper, from the SCA 2011 board, said around 200 delegates would be travelling to Aberdeen for the first time.

 "The SCA was founded 25 years ago in Dallas and was purely US focused, so the first symposiums were held in the USA before we decided to alternate between the USA and Europe," he said.

 "However, we held the event in Abu Dhabi in 2000 and the success of those conferences and demand from local companies meant we returned to Abu Dhabi in 2004 and 2008.

 "We got various requests to return to Abu Dhabi in 2012 but the board decided to go to Aberdeen for the first time. Without volunteers the symposium cannot operate but given it is the Energy Capital of Europe, we knew various local people were willing to join a committee to organise the event - and we will be calling on their expertise!"

 The team at Aberdeen Convention Bureau proactively promotes Aberdeen City and Shire to attract new conferences to the region, travelling worldwide to pursue business, attending global trade missions and networking events with buyers and decision makers.

Several of the recent wins have been brought in by the bureau's network of ambassadors, who work in the academic and corporate communities throughout the local area.

 Many of those appointed as conference ambassadors have a high profile within specialist fields such as oil and gas, health, food research, science and environmental research.

 Ambassadors work to promote Aberdeen City and Shire as an attractive conference destination by attracting key meetings and seminars to the area, focusing attention on the region and encouraging local economic growth.

In return, the scheme allows ambassadors to showcase their research and raise their own profile within their area of specialism, giving their subject matter a wider audience through Aberdeen Convention Bureau's support and promotion.

 For more information on Aberdeen Convention Bureau, call 01224 288815 or visit www.aberdeenconferences.com