The “pulling power” of Manchester as a conference destination is set for a huge increase. Manchester will become the UK’s “Knowledge Capital” with the merging of two universities - UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester – creating Britain’s largest unitary university. This historic move, which takes place in October 2004, will also of course bring together the two largest academic conference players in the North.
The University of Manchester and the Manchester Conference Centre at UMIST were previously hot competitors in the conference market, and the joining together of their conference facilities under one banner will bring much more flexibility and a vastly wider range of facilities to both sets of clients, helping to position Manchester not only as the “Knowledge Capital”, but also as the Conference Capital of Britain.
Andrew Yates, who will direct the new joint operation, comments: “The new merged university has all the ingredients to become the biggest and best conference venue in the country. It has purpose-built hotels and conference centres, a fully professional team including PCO services, decades of experience, a very loyal customer base and a massive academic market. We will be working hard to deliver the first-class facilities and top quality service which our customers have the right to expect.“ The name of the new university will be the “The University of Manchester”, and work is on-going to decide the name under which the combined conference centres will be marketed.
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