November Business First

I
n our house planning a dinner party for
eight seems to be a major exercise in
logistics. So the idea of providing full
conference facilities and three meals a day for
5000 (the maximum the newly expanded
Belfast Waterfront can facilitate) seems quite
daunting.
But after spending eight years in China with
international facilities management company
Aramark during which time she was
responsible for their delivery of the Beijing
Olympics ­ the biggest peace­time feeding
event ­ those 5000 seem quite manageable.
So it’s all a matter of perspective and an
understanding that whether you’re handling
a meeting of 10 or a major international
conference of 1000, the principles of success
are the same: communicate your
requirements to your staff: ensure you have
the right people in the right place, and set the
level of service bar very high.
With that philosophy in place and the
experience to make it happen, Catherine
Toolan is confident that the new Belfast
Waterfront is about to make a major impact
on both Belfast and across the Province.
“Belfast City Council has been visionary in
its commitment to the expansion of the
Waterfront,” Catherine began, “and I believe
the five year, £100 million economic impact
target is challenging, but achievable. And
when we achieve that, the value of the
investment for both Belfast and the rest of
Northern Ireland will be quite
transformational.
“At the moment each international
conference delegate spends around £400
daily. So one conference of 1000 delegates for
three days creates around £1.2 million of a
spend on hotels, food and entertainment.
“Multiply that by many, many conferences,
and you start to get a sense of how much of
an impact this new market which the
expanded Waterfront has made possible for
Belfast will affect our economy.
“Now add on a two or three day extended
stay in Fermanagh or the North West,
perhaps, and you begin to see how additional
spending can be generated across Northern
Ireland.
“We already have a brilliant product in
place, but with the addition of new hotels and
air­routes, that can only get better.”
Of course, it helps to have a state­of­the art
facility to sell, and Belfast Waterfront is
certainly that.
“Combined with the original facilities, the
new space provides us with the scalability we
need to work with international conferences
of up to 5000 from across the world,”
Catherine explained.
“A lot of time was spent ensuring that the
new space allowed for an easy flow of people
throughout the building, and behind the
beautiful space is state­of­the­art technology
QUOTABLEQUOTE
Belfast City Council has been
visionary in its commitment to the
expansion of the Waterfront and I
believe the five year, £100 million
economic impact target is
challenging for Belfast Waterfront,
but achievable. And when we
achieve that, the value of the
investment for both Belfast and
the rest of Northern Ireland will
be quite transformational.
that can meet and very often beat, any
competitor.
“For example, we recently tested the wi­fi
system and had no difficulty hosting 2000
devices online at the same time! That’s
impressive and it’s only one of so many
technological features of the building that
simply wow visiting conference planners.”
Selling Belfast
Catherine believes Belfast is now well
positioned to take­on some of Europe’s
leading conference destinations.
“Starting with the Lonely Planet Guide,
Belfast has been feted as ‘one to visit’ by
many commentators and publications. Add to
that research that shows the city to be one of
the safest in Europe, an international
following for the Titanic and Game of
Thrones, ease of access, affordability as
compared to other European destinations,
and English as the first language, and you
have the makings of a very attractive package.
“More importantly, we have a culture of
collaboration in Belfast with Visit Belfast and
TourismNI working closely with us to create
a business tourism strategy that brings
immediate access to all the best aspects of the
destination right to the conference planner’s
finger tips. That’s important and it helps us
stand out from the competition.
“And other seemingly small things like
potentially having the Lord Mayor of Belfast
open or address your conference, means a lot
to a conference planner. That’s not the kind of
access they will get in too many other
destinations!”
Working with Belfast
The arrival of a facility the size of Belfast
Waterfront creates a demand for new skills
and job opportunities and Catherine hopes to
see these maximised.
“This larger business tourism market
creates a demand for people with specific
skills and we want to work with the colleges
to help them deliver the training to fill the
demand. We’ll need more people with good
language skills and training and experience in
event planning, production and facilities
management, for example, as well as staff to
fill the new positions that will be created
from the new hotels, restaurants and other
services this market demands.
“I believe the success of Belfast Waterfront
will help create many thousands of job
opportunities across Northern Ireland, and I
look forward to being a part of this new
exciting phase in Northern Ireland’s
economic development.”
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