When events bring together senior leaders, policymakers and investors, the challenge is not just scale. It is creating the right conditions for meaningful conversation.
In November 2025, Wales hosted its largest business event to date – the Wales Investment Summit – welcoming more than 300 delegates from 29 countries, including the then First Minister, Eluned Morgan, and HRH The Prince of Wales.
Delivered in partnership with the Welsh Government, the main summit programme was hosted at ICC Wales, combining global visibility with complex logistics, high expectations and a need for both large-scale impact and smaller, more focused interaction.
All the VIP delegates enjoyed luxurious accommodation at the five-star Celtic Manor Resort, where versatile meeting spaces were also used to create immersive breakout sessions in the Hunter Lodges.
The summit positioned Wales on the international stage while demonstrating how large-scale events can still create space for meaningful human connection.
The challenge
While the main summit delivered high-impact plenary sessions, exhibitions and a flagship gala dinner, there was a different requirement running alongside it.
Senior delegates needed a setting away from the main programme – somewhere private, but still inspiring. A setting that could support both structured discussion and more open, creative thinking.
The ambition was to create an environment that moved beyond traditional conference formats and encouraged more open, productive interaction.
Real collaboration, however, tends to happen in smaller groups, where conversations can develop more naturally, relationships can build more easily, and opportunities can begin to take shape.
What happened
Alongside the main summit, the Hunter Lodges at Celtic Manor Resort were transformed into dedicated innovation hubs. They served as private business spaces, used for fireside chats, strategy sessions and small-group discussions.
Overlooking the Twenty Ten golf course, where attendees were also given the chance to follow in the footsteps of Ryder Cup legends, each lodge provided a secure, self-contained environment where smaller teams could step away from the pace of the event and into a more focused setting. The change of environment brought a different energy to conversations – combining privacy and focus with a sense of warmth, creativity and Welsh hwyl.
With open-plan living areas and private terraces, the lodges created an atmosphere that felt intentionally different from a traditional meeting environment. Themes included a Café Velo cycling experience, celebrating the importance of sporting events, a Chef’s Table culinary demonstration with leading Welsh chefs Tom Simmonds and Hywel Griffith exploring Wales’ burgeoning food and drink sector, and a Celtic Calm Lodge focussed on wellness through a restorative yoga session.
The more relaxed settings encouraged delegates to engage more openly, allowing discussions to move naturally between structured sessions, informal conversation and strategic thinking.
Why it worked
The event’s success came from balance. Large-scale summit moments were complemented by smaller, more personal environments where ideas could be explored in greater depth.
The Hunter Lodges created space for focused discussion, strategic thinking and more open conversation – interactions often harder to achieve in formal conference settings. Their design, combined with immersive experiences rooted in Welsh culture, helped create an atmosphere that felt both productive and relaxed.
Crucially, delegates were not moving between disconnected venues. Accommodation, meeting spaces, networking environments and leisure experiences were all integrated within one destination, creating a smoother and more cohesive delegate experience.
For organisers, having access to a range of environments within one connected portfolio meant greater flexibility and control, without adding operational complexity.
The Wales Investment Summit delivered both visibility and value, bringing together global stakeholders at scale while also creating opportunities for more meaningful, smaller-group interaction.
Within that, the Hunter Lodges played a key role. By providing private, immersive environments away from the pace of the main summit, they enabled more open discussion, deeper collaboration and stronger relationship-building. The lodges demonstrated how thoughtfully designed spaces can transform large-scale events into more connected, productive experiences.
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Author: Sam Hyland
Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email features@eventindustrynews.com
