Significant investment ensures NewcastleGateshead will be here for you when #ItsTynetoMeetAgain

In NewcastleGateshead we’ve just received planning consent for our international conference and exhibition centre – which is great news for the region and the UK’s business events offer! Construction will now start on the £260 million NewcastleGateshead Quays development, which will include a 6,300sqm pillar free exhibition hall, stunning meeting and event facilities overlooking the River Tyne, a state-of-the-art 12,500 capacity arena and 330 hotel bedrooms (adding to the existing 7,000 already within a 20-minute walk). Full details with the latest plans, video, images and capacities can be found here: https://www.meetnewcastlegateshead.com/gatesheadquays/

We're also about to see the Innside by Melia hotel, a £25m investment by an international operator, open its doors in December on the Quayside and Dutch firm Vastint Hospitality has confirmed its plans to invest £18m to bring a Moxy Hotel to Newcastle Helix, our business and innovation district.

At the NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau we’ve been working tirelessly with our hotels, venues and support service providers to capture content to show you - professional conference organisers - how we’re adapting to successfully host meetings and events again safely.

Newcastle and Northumbria universities, national train operator LNER, Newcastle United Football Club, the 900-year-old Newcastle Castle, art galleries, museums, attractions, restaurants, AV production companies and a plethora of hotels all came together to collaborate on our #ItsTyneToMeetAgain campaign. Front line team members captured video and photography on smart phones to show the adaptations that the industry had made to ensure compliance with ever changing guidelines. This was a project we undertook over the summer when the Government had given the green light for business events to start again in October, only for it to be suspended when the tiered system was introduced and more recently a new national lockdown for England!

This was not a wasted effort, however, the business events community in North East England continues to collaborate - looking at how we can best support organisers with hybrid event delivery and continuously capturing new content all the time. Throughout all of this we’ve not lost our passion and welcoming Geordie spirit – we know it won’t be long until it’s time to meet again, and we’ll be raring to work with you when we can.