2019 was another spectacular year for meetings and events in NewcastleGateshead, welcoming 167 conferences and events to the region and placing £1.5 million of direct business at North East venues and hotels. These events saw a total of 8,500 delegates attending a conference or social event booked by the NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau team. NewcastleGateshead was also host to the World Transplant Games and the European Professional Club Rugby finals which saw over 17,500 overnight stays booked across 2019.
NewcastleGateshead is a destination that both organisers and delegates love. It’s not surprising thanks to its striking setting, compact city centre, fantastic transport links and 2,000 years of history. And with a huge choice of exciting urban and rural venues, cutting-edge cultural facilities and some of the finest support services in the country, it’s easy to see why NewcastleGateshead is such a popular choice for conferences, meetings and events.
New to Newcastle
2020 is set for an equally impressive year with the UK’s newest international conference and exhibition centre in NewcastleGateshead, edging ever closer to its completion date in 2023.
Renowned venue management group ASM Global has officially been announced as the operator for the new £260 million scheme which will be on the waterfront of Gateshead Quays. The scheme will comprise of 6,300 m2 of conference and exhibition space, 2,800m2 of flexible meeting space and a 12,500-capacity indoor arena along with two brand-new hotels which are yet to be announced.
Newcastle Helix is also the latest city-centre development to introduce new events and exhibition space with the opening of the Frederick Douglass Centre in 2019. Newcastle Helix is NewcastleGateshead’s flagship development and is set to offer an overall 46,500 sqm of office, research and meetings space upon completion.
A £35 million learning and teaching centre, it is named in honour of the 19th century social reformer and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, who was himself an escaped slave. Douglass visited Newcastle in 1846 as part of a lecture tour, speaking about slavery in America. The purpose-built educational space comprises a multipurpose 750-seater auditorium, which can split into a 500 and 250-seater lecture theatre, an open plan atrium and 176-seater collaborative lecture theatre.
The building also has plentiful seminar rooms with two 30-seater, two 45-seater and two 60-seater rooms and several social spaces throughout. Newcastle Helix is the only one of its kind in the UK. The 24-acre hybrid city quarter is specifically built for international tech and science innovation and home to the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing and the National Innovation Centre for Data.
Newcastlegateshead.com