VENUE PROFILE
The Eikon Exhibition Centre
EN meets Theresa Morrissey,
commercial & financial director
at Northern Ireland’s largest
events campus
What kind of events does the venue
host? What kind of events do you want to
attract?
The Eikon Exhibition Centre hosts a number
of different events such as B2B and B2C
exhibitions, sporting events, large theatre-style
conferences, motorsport exhibitions, and both
corporate and family events.
The venue also hosts Northern Ireland’s
largest agri-food festival, the Balmoral Show,
which attracts more than 115,000 visitors over
a four-day period each year.
With Northern Ireland proving to be a top
destination for exhibitions and corporate events
in recent years, the Eikon Exhibition Centre
is purpose-built for any event or exhibition
considering Northern Ireland as a location.
Tell me about the launch of the venue and
how it’s evolved over the last few years.
The Eikon Exhibition Centre opened
in 2015, with its team relocating from the
prestigious King’s Hall Complex, Belfast,
which hosted a range of events for more than
80 years.
The Eikon has grown from strength to
strength since it opened, starting off with
5,000sqm of indoor event space and 65 acres of
outdoor event space, and continuously adding
further facilities and services in a small period
of time.
Notably in May 2018, the Eikon doubled in
size, adding a further 5,600sqm of indoor event
space.
What makes the Eikon unique?
The Eikon Exhibition Centre is Northern
Ireland’s largest events campus, twice the size
of any other venue in Northern Ireland.
The venue has 10,600sqm of accessible
indoor event space, which can be divided into
flexible combinations of event space. The Eikon
also has a further 65 acres of outdoor event
space to add to any event or exhibition.
The Eikon Exhibition Centre is 15 minutes
from Belfast city centre and is within a
30-minute drive from 70 per cent of the NI
population. The venue is within a 90-minute
drive for four million people, attracting a large
number of visitors.
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What services and facilities do you offer
organisers?
Event organisers will work with a
dedicated account manager, operations
manager and venue liaison manager, each
role is specifically designed to assist in the
operations and logistics of using the Eikon
Exhibition Centre.
The Eikon has more than 4,000 free car
parking spaces and state-of-the-art facilities,
including a dedicated organiser’s space,
1GB fibre optic broadband and bespoke event
electrical and plumbing systems.
The venue also has a large stock of event
equipment, which is available to hire for
an event or exhibition. Such items include
heras fencing, crowd barriers, an outdoor
ticket booth, a 170-seater grandstand trailer,
forklifts, cherry pickers, tables and chairs.
Should you require something specific, local
hire companies can be recommended.
The venue has excellent accommodation
links within the surrounding area, as well as
leading eateries and tourist destinations.
Why should organisers hold events in
Northern Ireland?
Northern Ireland is an up and coming
destination for business tourism, with a record
8.5 million passengers flying through our
two main regional airports last year, Belfast
International and Belfast City – both of which
are within a 30-minute drive of the Eikon.
Furthermore, NI has excellent shipping links
with Larne and Belfast Ports.
With the Eikon Exhibition Centre located
adjacent to both the main arterial route from
Belfast to Dublin and the intersection of the
M1 and A1, the venue attracts a large number
of visitors from the island of Ireland.
With more and more companies wanting to
break into the economically affluent NI and
ROI markets, and a £68m sales market, an
exhibition or event can be the launch pad that
exhibitors need to showcase their product or
service.
Is there anything exciting coming up that
you’d like to mention?
With many events at the Eikon Exhibition
Centre availing of the additional space, a lot
of our event organisers are now doubling the
size of event space and offering more space and
slots for exhibitors.
Furthermore, we are seeing a growing
trend of events using outdoor space to boost
exhibitor sales through live demonstrations and
interactive selling, or by using outdoor space
for further attractions to their event. EN
exhibitionnews.co.uk | February 2019