The Brighton Centre has claimed its recent £1m refurbishment is paying dividends after securing a range of exhibitions and conferences through to 2024.
 
The venue claims bookings since January are currently worth more than £85m to the city of Brighton and Hove. Among those booked into the Brighton Centre post-refurbishment are the Eurogamer expo, the Tesco Wine Fair, the 2013 Labour Party Conference, the British Red Cross Conferences and related exhibitions.
 
These new wins, plus a number of other events, are expected to generate a further £40m in revenue for the city.
 
“The investment we have made in extending and updating the facilities at The Brighton Centre and improving the experience for event organisers, delegates and visitors is paying big dividends,” the centre’s general manager Howard Barden said.
 
“The venue’s success is also fundamental to the economic performance of the City of Brighton and Hove. Our visitors generate substantial revenues for local business including hotels, restaurants, transport and retail outlets and help to sustain 14,000 local jobs.”
 
The £1m venue refurbishment involved modernising the interior, creating a new street entrance and foyer with floor-to-ceiling height glazed frontage, replacing more than 4,000 seats in the auditorium and expanding and improving its restaurant.
 
The venue has also replaced cabling infrastructure for the building and introduced free Wi-Fi, new projectors, screens and plasma displays.
 
“We now see the centre as being an extremely competitive facility for the UK,” Howard added.
 
The Brighton Marathon Exhibition claimed an increase of 10,000 visitors to 17,000 at its Brighton Centre show in April.
 
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