Conference News Supplements CN Milton Keynes Supplement July/Aug 2017 | Page 3

3 Milton Keynes Welcome to MK! n behalf of the hoteliers, conference venues and attractions of our city, I’m delighted to welcome you to this Conference News supplement on Milton Keynes. 2017 is MK’s 50th Birthday – it was on 23 January 1967 that the charter was signed, and the new city of Milton Keynes was born. We’ve come a long way in 50 years, and we now stand out as one of the UK’s most unexpected destinations for business and leisure tourism alike. Our most recent research shows that the Visitor Economy is worth upward of £232m per annum to the overall city economy, and this is on the rise with the launch of new attractions, hotels and venues as we continue into this historic year. Destination Milton Keynes is the DMO for the city, with a remit not only to manage the Visitor Economy, but also to run the thriving conference desk. Our focus for the remainder of 2017 is to further enhance our conference and accommodation offering both online and in person. We’ve always been known as a maverick city, and against a backdrop of the UK’s DMOs throwing all of their resources to online activities, DMK went against the grain and opened a new Visitor Information Centre in 2014. This centre is thriving and we’re driving towards making it the regional one-stop-shop for conference and accommodation booking. Our conferencing offer – as you will see from within the pages of this supplement – ranges from small meetings right through to full-scale exhibitions in our state-of-the-art arena. www.conference-news.co.uk MK is so much more than the sum of its parts however: with attractions as historic as Bletchley Park, and as cutting edge as Xscape, coupled with the facts that we boast the most popular theatre outside the West End, and still cram in more shoreline than Jersey – Milton Keynes really does have it all. Come for the business, stay for the leisure. I look forward to welcoming you to MK soon. - Steven Gordon-Wilson, Chief Executive of Destination Milton Keynes