One of the most exciting venues, we feature one of London’s top largest and most versatile event suite, fitted with state of the art equipment, stunning design and one of the best secret to keep budgets in line.

ILEC Conference Centre, part of the actual Hotel Ibis London Earls Court, firstly opened in 1972. At the time the hotel-venue featured London’s largest pillar-free event space. Over the next 30 years, the hotel operated under several brand names (Centre Hotel, Ramada, Park In…) until 2003 when Accor hotels Group took over the management contract under the Ibis brand.

Initially the “ILEC Project” started during the summer 2010 with an investment of £0.5M into the banqueting kitchen facilities.

Following the rebranding of the property, a large market research project was conducted to give the latest insight of the event industry.

The transformation that took place in 2012 is a direct result of few years of research and 5 million pounds investment. One of the most important revelations was the increasing demand for flexibility of function space. Organisers not only have a requirement for large, open areas without the impediment of pillars for exhibitions and sports events, but they also need flexible break-out spaces for corporate conferences and smaller meetings. The space is built around the client needs rather than the other way around. For that to be possible the venue had been reinforce with a metal case which allowed for the extra weight of the partitions and tracks to be sustained.

The new London Suite is a stunning ballroom hall fitted with stylish contemporary décor and built-in LED lighting system, perfect to suit the ambience of any event. Designed with flexibility in mind, a clever partition system enables to part the suite into nine modules of various sizes, creating multiple configurations for up to 1200 guests. All divisions have a building management system equipped with sensors to allow pre-programmed A/C, sounds level, lighting to create a perfect ambiance.

The venue is also well fitted with 1GB fiber optic line dedicated to the events space which allowed capturing a high number of cyber security events and IT sector. Besides featuring one of London’s most flexible event space, the property is also the only one to host on-site 3* hotel. This means we can provide event planner with a great solution and competitive packages.

For corporate hospitality events, we can accommodate parties of 20 to 800 for seat-down events. The venue also hosts a dedicated banqueting kitchen to answer the requirement of any hospitality event. Additionally, the kitchen can be hired-out for self-catering events.

Being an open space, anything can be build up from mobile bar, dance floor, any entertainment features while our pre-function room can host any welcome drink for up to 250 guests.

The loading bay door street 5 x 5 meter at the street level allows an easy access for anything from double decker buses, cars, tanks to be brought in.

Since one of the most predominant events for any sector would be the conference / exhibition ones, the strength of the venues adaptability encourages clients to book way in advance. Regardless of which side sells better or if breakouts are needed the space can be redesigned and constantly adapting to the ever changing clients briefs.

The joint-partnership with AVC Live is borne out of a direct response from clients who want to deal direct with conference venues on all aspects of their event, from hospitality and catering right through to AV production and staging. Consequently, clients can now benefit from a wide range of services including event production, equipment hire, scenery building, video film production, presentation design and digital animation. And as a valuable added benefit, AVC Live will retain a Technical Manager on site to liaise directly with ILEC Conference Centre’s clients. AVC Live played a major part in the refurbishment of ILEC Conference Centre by bringing their 20 years of experience in the AV production industry to help the venue with both the internal construction of the venue and the specification of the very latest audio and lighting equipment.

Working with all the industry sectors (medical, aviation, IT, educations, transport, finance etc) and being constantly challenged brings the best out of the venue potential with some memorable event that we have hosted. To name some would be the first live stream surgery in 4K technology with over 400 surgeons presents ( ALSGBI) , a 72 hackathon with constant live stream between London and Saudi Arabia ( MiSK Foundation) , KTMMA boxing and international ballroom dancing evens along with lots of interesting and exciting events coming up.

We understand that two events or two clients are never the same hence why customisation in everything is a must leading to every event being both challenging and exciting.

Excluding the standard guidance packages on the market, offers are generally based on specific needs of each client.

For the catering side of any events, sample menus are altered as much as possible to the client request and personal preferences. The broad experience of our head chef allows him to take his passion for food into themed event for different cuisine.

Working with 60 – 70% of repetitive clients is a high statement to our customer services.

Since the events sector is an ever-changing one it is compulsory to be on top of it by attending / exhibiting to most of the trade shows nationally and internationally. Trying to be a step ahead and anticipating needs can be a lot of work but having a versatile / dynamic team where everyone is encouraged to use their creativity is key. We are proud to be hosting some internal familiarisation trips with a twist which give us the opportunity to showcase and connect with the agencies / clients in a more relax, innovative way. We have noticed that this type of approach has been very successful in creating long term relationships.

#weloveevents

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