VisitBrighton has secured a two year deal to host the GMB’s annual congress until 2012. Due to be held at the Brighton Centre, the congress will attract over 800 delegates and visitors when it returns to the city between the 5th-9th June 2011.
The GMB’s 94th Congress since first being held in 1890, it has previously been hosted in Brighton six times since 1981. In recent years the congress has been staged in cities and towns across the UK including Blackpool, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Southport. The Brighton Centre was chosen because of its size (it can accommodate events of between 300-5000 delegates), ability to offer flexible exhibition and conference space, as well as its reputation for hosting first class meetings and high profile events.
Steve Short, executive officer for GMB comments: “We are extremely pleased to be coming back to Brighton for the next two years. Our Executive Council has to consider overall costs, not only to the union itself, but the value for money for the delegates and their families.
Brighton has resisted pressures to drive consumer prices in the city too far up market and must continue to do so to stay competitive in a very tough market place. The days of alternating Blackpool and Brighton have well and truly gone.”
Short continues: “We are in Brighton for two years because we are familiar with what Brighton has to offer, we know full well that the GMB congress venue will have excellent facilities and knowledgeable staff available to help produce a successful and valuable event for our delegates.”
Darren Johnson, VisitBrighton’s convention bureau sales manager remarks: “With the conference facilities and venues we have in Brighton, it is a great recognition that we are winning large events like the GMB congress. The array of venues we offer event organisers, such as the Brighton Centre, ensures we are able to cater for a broad spectrum of
events regardless of size or budget.”
GMB is a campaigning trade union whose focus is on protecting its members in the workplace; GMB is a general union with over 611,000 members working in every part of the economy. Founded over 12 decades ago, it has grown to be one of the UK’s most powerful and forward thinkers for change.
