Manchester Central partnership recognised at the ABPCO Excellence Awards!

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L to R Lynsey Aspinall, Liz Conboy, Louise Greene and Rosie Jacques
L to R Lynsey Aspinall, Liz Conboy, Louise Greene and Rosie Jacques

The ABPCO Excellence Awards celebrate excellence and leadership in association conference and event organisations.

In 2019, the Manchester Central’s partnership with Haymarket Media Group was commended ‘Best Industry Partnership’, following their collaboration to deliver the most successful CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE) yet.

ACE is CIPD’s largest flagship event bringing together thousands of Human Resources and Learning & Development professionals to share insights, solutions and best practice on issues facing the profession and wider world of work.

In 2018, the CIPD team decided to develop its programme to become the annual event for members. The aim was to engage with the previously untapped audience within the Greater Manchester community and Manchester Central supported this initiative by reaching out to local connections, resulting in several new partnerships.

The dynamic partnership subsequently saw remarkable results including:

  • A 14% increase in overall attendee numbers
  • The number of CIPD members visiting the event increased by 17%
  • 95% of delegates said they would recommend the event to a colleague – an increase of 10%
  • 91% of exhibitors successfully met their objectives
  • 60% of delegates came from within and nearby Manchester

Elizabeth Conboy, head of venue sales at Manchester Central, said: “We are delighted to be part of the ABPCO family, and to have the opportunity to work with Haymarket to build on the success of previous CIPD events and make this event the best one yet.

“Manchester is increasingly regarded as the location to do business outside of London, with many private organisations opening large-scale offices in the region. Haymarket really wanted to tap into these audiences, and it was great to able to support their objective by maximising our contacts and facilitating meetings with key stakeholders across the city.

“It is a real pleasure to have received this award and to demonstrate the true meaning of a fruitful partnership.”

CIPD’s head of content, Anton Riolo, said: “We work with lots of venues across a variety of events and this is the most successful partnership we have experienced. It’s a good example that working with a venue isn’t just about the space – it’s about the destination and how we can both make a difference in our markets. The close partnership has been instrumental in helping CIPD grow year on year.”  

Sam Hyland
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 editor@eventindustrynews.com