VIDEO LIBRARY TRANSCRIPTS
BBC's Political Correspondent interviews Gerry Acher, Chair of London ICC
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.