• The 40 recently secured conferences will bring around 20,000 delegates to Edinburgh and the EICC and translate to around £32 million of economic impact

Edinburgh, 8 December 2023 – in the last quarter the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) has secured a string of major conference wins, which will take place over the next 12-36 months, and will equate to the venue’s strongest ever pipeline of events business.

The 40 conferences and events, which will bring around 20,000 delegates to Edinburgh and the EICC, and translate to around £32 million of economic impact, include major healthcare conferences such as the 36th International Papillomavirus Conference in November 2024; the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in GB & Ireland in March 2025; and the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists Annual Scientific Meeting in May 2025.

EICC CEO Marshall Dallas said: “We are proud to host some of the world’s top conferences from industries spanning environmental and engineering, health and bioscience, technology, and education set for Edinburgh over the next few years, with over 50 per cent of these large association conferences coming from outside the UK.  That’s great news not only for us, but for Edinburgh and the region.”

“The credit for the conference wins we’re announcing today goes to our sales and support teams, which we have carefully grown and strengthened in recent times, and the way in which the team works collaboratively with industry peers in Edinburgh and beyond to attract events to the city.”

Marshall Dallas continued: “It’s also pleasing to see the first conference wins coming directly from our Exchange Initiative.”

The EICC launched an academic advisory board, named Exchange Initiative, in 2022, aimed at raising the city’s global profile, highlighting world-class research coming out of Scotland’s university sector, and driving association conference business.

This week, DDL 2023, the premier international conference covering all aspects of respiratory drug delivery, takes place at the EICC (6-8 December), with the longstanding event hosted at the EICC since 2005.

In October, Convention Edinburgh, which was relaunched under the guardianship of the EICC last summer, relaunched a new Ambassador programme, bringing together Edinburgh’s academic talent and event industry professionals to form a network of ambassadors championing the city as a world renowned destination for academia and events.

In June 2022, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced that it has entered a franchise agreement with the EICC for a 350-bedroom Hyatt Centric hotel in the Haymarket area of the city. The hotel will improve the strength of the EICC as an international event destination, will see revenues reinvested into the conference centre and hotel, and the planned hotel school will help to address recruitment challenges faced by Scotland’s hospitality industry.  The hotel will also be one of the most sustainable hotels in Scotland, with zero fossil fuel energy use.

Also during 2022, the conference and events venue announced that it had taken on the management and operations of Edinburgh’s Convention Bureau to help drive the city’s business events sector.

The EICC increased revenue by 45 per cent to £11.8 million in the year to 31st December 2022 (2021: £7.4m), recording economic impact, which has a direct benefit to Edinburgh and the surrounding region, of £51.9 million.