With global pop icons to Scotland’s very own Andy Murray entertaining more than one million people last year, The Hydro remains the most high-profile building of the three which form the Scottish Event Campus, but competition remains tough in the markedly less glamorous business conference market, where the SEC competes with venues in cities across the world.
The SEC’s chief executive, Peter Duthie, said, overall, the year ending in March was “very positive”, although revenue from conferences fell by a quarter.
The cyclical nature of this industry however, means that the SEC also had a record year for forward conference bookings, helped in part by the weakness in sterling offering an effective discount on venues in the Eurozone.
It is in this conference sector that the SEC attracts most of its international delegates, and it is these delegates who make an economic impression on Glasgow (estimated at £414 million last year), and in other parts of Scotland.
Add in increased competition from the likes of Manchester and it is no wonder Mr Duthie is hoping the Campus secures the estimated £100m funding it needs to build the extension to the west of the current Centre.
Next month he will begin pitching to public and private sector organisations for that funding.
In the current economic climate it will not be an easy sell but, without modernisation, or the space to host bigger conferences, the SEC will simply not be able to compete on a global scale – and no rush of pop stars will change that.
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