Unique Venues of Leeds is aiming to provide event planners from all over the country the opportunity to discover alternative, unusual and unique venues for hire in Leeds for conferences, exhibitions, parties and events.
The Unique Venues of Leeds website offers conference & event organisers a convenient way to select alternative venues using different selection criteria, ranging from the venue name; the type of event; the number of attendees; venue location and the style of venue, to search and discover the perfect space for their conference or event. From smaller, more intimate and quirky spaces for meetings to functional, purpose-built or performance facilities that offer drama and entertainment.
The launch of the platform is down to the collaboration of six great, alternative and unique venues; Horizon, Northern Ballet, Leeds College of Music, The Studio, Duke Studios and Shine. From the venues’ perspectives, it offers a way to collectively promote and market the use of independent and locally run spaces as an alternative to branded chain hotels.
Unique Venues of Leeds says corporate event planners have recognised the value of the city as a key location to hold conferences and events. At a recent British Meetings and Events Industry survey (BMEIS), Leeds was ranked as the fourth most popular conferencing city in the UK.
With business visitors adding to a tourism industry that contributes over £200 million to the local economy, services like Unique Venues of Leeds are vital in continuing to promote Leeds as a venue for UK business events.
With distinctly modern and contemporary to individually iconic and historic venues. Leeds offers a fantastic range of unique venues for hire, in a modern cosmopolitan city and beautiful historical settings. Leeds offers incredible diversity, amazing shopping and nightlife in the centre of the North.
The expansion to Leeds follows the Unique Venues brand’s success with Unique Venues of Manchester, which has been operating now for over 5 years, originally starting with 6 venues, and now lists over 40 venues, hotels, restaurants, bars and industry suppliers. Unique Venues also hosted a UVM Expo earlier this year, attracting event planners, agents, freelancers and PAs from across the North West.
Claire Heap, Head of Conference Leeds, said: “The unique venues are an important part of our venue portfolio here in the city of Leeds, with each of them allowing us to offer very individual conference experiences bespoke to organisers’ wants and needs. It’s excellent to see these venues collaborating to form the Unique Venues of Leeds and working in partnership for the good of the city’s conferencing proposition. It is exciting developments such as these which are part of the reason that we are continuing to climb in the BMEIS rankings, with Leeds now being the 4th most popular conferencing destination in the UK.”
The unique venues portfolio aims to provide conference and event organisers a simple and efficient method of searching and selecting a unique venue for their conference or event. To provide venues, hotels, restaurants, bars and industry suppliers with a simple and cost effective tool to market and promote their facilities and services to conference and event organisers. With the added benefit and opportunity to work collaboratively, participating in activities and network with colleagues.
Mathew Jayne, Director at Unique Venues, added: “It has always been the ambition to grow Unique Venue. To build a strong and recognisable brand; maintain our focus of a collaborative marketing approach; and help to support independent (and sometimes smaller) venues compete in the competitive conference and events market. Having the opportunity to work with these amazing Leeds venues, a city where I went to University, is fantastic and a really proud moment.”
