Press Cuttings Transcripts
Plans for London Convention Centre
BBC Radio West Midlands, 12 February 2004, Time: 12:12:08, Duration: 00:12:55
PLANS FOR LONDON CONVENTION CENTRE – ED: earlier we heard that there are
proposals to build an international convention centre in London – why does it
need it?
STUDIO INTERVIEW: GERRY ACHER, CHAIR NEW MAYORAL COMMISSION – said unlike other
cities, London does not have a convention centre that can match Paris etc. Feel
UK losing out on some of these larger conferences. Many delegates come to a
conference and spend time here looking around and spending money. Have been to
conventions at the ICC in Birmingham. Don’t think London having a convention
centre will have any impact on Birmingham, in fact it may well attract more
people to this country. There will have to be some public money in this. Rest
of country will benefit from tourists coming out of London.
Interview
Interviewer John Pienaar: So Gerry, just set the context for
me, and tell me why the ICC is important to us.
Gerry Acher: Ah, the ICC has come up to the top of the agenda
because the London leadership forum last year in assessing the priorities
realised that once and for all the situation regarding a major London
convention centre really needed to focus its right place on the agenda. And I’m
terribly excited at the foresight of this group in getting a commission put
together under the auspices of the LDA and the Mayor to hopefully resolve this
position and if it finds it to be appropriate, to move it forward.
JP: Does that mean that you are not convinced yet that a
convention centre, an international convention centre, in London, would make
good business sense?
GA: I’m satisfied that there is a case. What we don’t know at
the moment is what is that case, what is the strength of that case, both in
terms of economics into London and into the rest of the country. And based on
that level of demand, what should be the shape of the convention centre, and
where should it be, and how should we fund it. But as well as that, we have got
to look at our existing offerings, and say what are our existing offerings, and
are we putting them across in the most optimum way? Are we already at the
position that we can say we’re competing, on centre stage, with a virtual
convention centre. Now, my view, and I think the view of the leadership forum,
is that there is a long way to go in this area, a lot has been done, and is
indeed being done.
JP: Just give me a sense of what that means in bread and butter
terms. Does it mean you’re going to be looking at the capacity of hotels to
take in large numbers of guests at short notice and treat them the way they
expect to be treated? Are you looking at the transport links across the capital
and to the capital and taking that into account? Give me a picture of what is
going to be in your intray as you look at the nuts and bolts of making this
idea possible.
GA: John, it’s all of these. It’s what I call the environment,
and the experience. In other words, it’s from the moment the individuals arrive
from the various ariport terminals, the ease of welcome there, the convention
facilities for them to identify their next step forward, actually at the
airport terminals, the feeling of belonging when they find their transportation
to the convention centre or the hotels where they’re staying or whatever, easy,
the fact that they’re able to do all their registration for their conventions
from back home over the net, or the visits they want to do or the pre- and
post- tours they want to do, they can do it all easily in one place. The whole
visitor experience is one where they can go back afterwards and say “that was
great.”
JP: OK, now when do we start seeing results from your exercise?
When do you start yeilding the fruits of your consultation and study?
GA: I think the first stage is the consultation and the
stakeholders and others contributing towards that consultation. We are going to
make this a very open and transparent affair.
JP: OK, you’re giving some very political and constructively
non-commital answers, if I could put it that way. Can I ask you to stick your
neck out a bit? Do you feel in your bowels that this is something that is
actually going to happen?
GA: If I was so strongly one way or the other, I would be the
wrong person to have as the chairman. My job as the chairman is to listen with
my commission members to all the evidence, make sure we’re getting all the
right evidence, to construct the right model. If I had in-built prejudices, the
one thing I could promise you is that we’d end up with the wrong model. I’m
passionate about London, and therefore I’m passionate that we should have the
state-of-the-art facilities this capital deserves. But I’m also a businessman,
and I understand economics, and I understand that if we cannot get the pieces
of the jigsaw to fit properly together, there’s no point in taking a hammer and
hammering them in. That’s not the answer. We’ve got to do what we can to make
that jigsaw work. But what I’m telling you, John, is we don’t know at this
moment what is the shape of the jigsaw, and what is the colour of the picture
on it. That’ll emerge as we get through our studies.
JP: So, Gerry, tell me what do you hope to achieve from this
forum today?
GA: This forum, last year, got the whole subject to the top of
the business tourism agenda. Now we need to take it to the next stage. We need
to identify all the areas where London, as it’s existing, today, can be more
competitive in this fast growing convention market. We’re already doing great
things. Don’t think otherwise. But there is a lot we could still do to improve
our competitiveness against some of the new type facilities and the new
offerings coming on board. We need to identify all the issues. They’re going to
make us more competitive, so we can get the most revenues from the market that
is available to us. And above all, get people going home with a conviction to
return to London, either again on their own or with their families, and
returning to the UK. Because remember, if London does it right, it will benefit
the whole of the UK.
JP: If the convention centre happens, where’s it going to be?
GA: I think one of the reasons why we have failed to get a
convention centre off the ground is because everybody has had a vision of the
convention centre and where it’s going to be at the outset. Now we’re adopting
a different approach. What we are saying is what is the market out there? What
is the market for a convention centre, how does it look in terms of size, in
terms of the type of people and what they will require? And when we have formed
a really good idea of the demand model, and every aspect of that demand model,
we would then be able to say what sort of shape should the convention centre
be, and where should it be. And its cost will be dependent of course on
location, and of course on size. But past models and past exercises have shown
typically that you’re not going to get a convention centre of the sort we need
probably for much under £150 million, but it’s too early to even be talking
about this. We really need, as I said, to work out the demand, and to work out
how the convention centre will fit within its immediate environment, whether
it’ll be built as part of a bigger site, or indeed whether it is part of an
extension of an existing facility.
JP: This, as you say, has been tried before. What’s different
this time?
GA: I think there are three or four things that are
significantly different. I think first of all that there is a greater degree of
confidence within London. Secondly, the LDA sees the importance of this, as
does Ken Livingstone as mayor. They are real champions for this. And Visit
London has put in a lot into this and can see the tremendous benefits. If we
look at other major cities who have introduced major convention centres, John,
the one thing that every one of them has had, that has been succesful, is
passion amongst the leaers of the communities to make it happen and make it
successful.
JP: Thank you very much indeed, Gerry
GA: Thank you.