Press Cuttings Transcripts
Creating a class act
Conference News, 01 April 04
Gerry Acher, chairman of the London mayoral commission tells John Spain about ambience, excitement and passion.
For Gerry Acher, a visit to the Conference News offices in Wimbledon is almost like coming home. "I was born two roads from here in the closing days of the Second World War and was the smallest baby to be born in that nursing home," he says. "Nowadays that isn't a huge problem, but in 1945 it was, nobody thought I would survive, I suppose that having got over that the rest was quite easy,"
The end of the war was a time when London, like other towns and cities across Europe, had to begin extensive building and regeneration programmes. In many ways that process is still going on 60 years later and the building of a convention centre for the capital is symbolic of this.
"It's very much about regeneration" says Acher, "although that is only one of the options. One could equally look at our existing facilities and build on those."
Acher points out that the idea of a major convention centre is something that many countries and cities around the world use as part of their regeneration. This is not just for the sake of having a new building, he says, it is also about culture, money and infrastructure.
Throughout his career Acher has been a delegate at many conferences around the world and is convinced that the successful convention centre has two main elements. "First there is the ambience of the centre itself and then there is the town, city or country that it's in," he says. "It's the combination of the two that leaves you feeling that you want to come back."
He remembers a particular moment that illustrates this. "We were at quite a difficult convention in Melbourne and we needed to discuss business with some other delegates. Four of us walked along the banks of the Yarra River just outside the conference centre and then we walked up to the botanical gardens. We achieved some major breakthroughs, the ambience of that place helped us greatly."
Now, after years of visiting other convention centres, Acher is charged with chairing the commission that will look into the question of building one for London and he is clear about what he has to do.
"I see my role as that of listening to the views of others and making judgements accordingly."
The remit of the commission is in three parts. First it has to identify whether there is a need and what that need is. Second, having established that, it has to assess how the need may best be filled in terms of what sort of size and shape it would be, where it would be located, how much it would cost, and wha the timescale would be. Third, the commission has to look at existing facilities and identify what London could be doing to be more competitive in the international market than it is at the moment.
"We have to do this anyway, whether we are to build a new centre of add onto an existing facility or if we decide that the sums simply don't add up," he says.
Acher underlines that the setting up of a mayoral commisssion does not make the building of a new convention centre a given. If the evidence is clearly against it, the project will not happen. However, when pressed on what his personal feeling is, Acher is on the side of those who want to go ahead.
"If I wasn't passionate about London doing the right thing and prospering, I don't think I'd have put myself forward for this job," he says. "Of course I've got a hunch that I'd like to see it built and that it is an exciting building and I'd like to see it contributing to the business world and the community wherever it is."
He says again, however, that he needs to be realistic and pay heed to where the evidence leads.
Mention of the contribution a new centre could make to the business life of London is key. Does London really need a complex like this? As far as business tourism is concerned are ther not enough conference and edxhibition centres already? Similarly, as long as Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Madam Tussauds are there, will hotels not continue to do good leisure business?
The fact remains, though, that many people in the conference industry still maintain that the capital needs a convention centre.