This month Conference Solutions by Expotel’s venue destination is the West Midlands. The West Midlands has become one of the country’s leading conference and event destinations. It offers a wide range of venues to suit just about any event for any amount of delegates and an effective and comprehensive transport system. Here at Conference Solutions by Expotel, we have excellent relationships with many venues in the West Midlands; here is a sample of we can book for you.

Aston Business School Management Development Centre
Located just five minutes’ walk from Birmingham’s city centre, the Aston Business School Management Development Centre is a centre of excellence for training but is also an ideal location for conferences, business presentations, private meetings, formal or informal dinners and breakfast briefings.

The Centre has 20 purpose-built training rooms all with natural daylight and an 80 seat, stepped lecture theatre with on-site support from a fully trained team of technicians. And as you would expect of a university, the facilities have been designed and equipped to provide the optimum conditions for productive learning.

In the conference rooms, personal touches include ergonomically designed furniture, a range of free presentation materials and visual aids plus a choice of refreshments throughout the day.

The Business School also boasts a bar and lounge area for delegate to meet and relax as well as a restaurant for up to 120 people with a reputation for excellent food.

Black Country Living Museum
This museum is located within a 26 acre urban heritage park in the shadow of Dudley Castle and nine miles from Birmingham City Centre. Historic buildings from all around the Black Country have been moved and authentically rebuilt at the Museum to create a tribute to the traditional skills and enterprise of the people that once lived in the heart of industrial Britain.

The museum can support meetings and conferences, product launches, exhibitions and training days; anything from a meeting for ten to an evening for 1000+. The whole Museum can be used for corporate occasions the ‘Museum at its Best’ or guests can use just the exhibition galleries. It can be quite a unique experience as guests can have guided access to all areas of the Museum from the underground coal mine to the Bottle and Glass pub or the Fried Fish shop. There is an electric tramcar or trolley bus for travelling around the Museum village and costumed ‘villagers’ recount their stories and activities.

The Museum can handle up to 2,000 people in an evening.

Edgbaston Cricket Club
First formed as a club in 1882, Edgbaston is home to the Warwickshire County Cricket Club a.k.a. the Bears and is recognised as one of the finest cricket arenas in the country. The club offers many corporate hospitality packages in conjunction with the cricket matches. They have function rooms that can accommodate 10 – 300+ people, 12,000 sq ft of exhibition space, tours of the ground (upon request), team building activities at the conference centre and even hold a licence for civil marriages.

The ground has several hospitality boxes for parties of eight or more which all have VIP seating overlooking the main playing area. The boxes on the upper floor have a capacity for 12 – 30 people and the lower floor has the capacity for 12 – 24 people. All boxes have padded outdoor seats for exceptional viewing of the cricket.

National Motorcycle Museum
With perhaps one of the most extensive motorcycle collections in the country, this museum was devastated by fire in September 2003. However, seizing the opportunity to rebuild the venue, the museum opened its state-of-the-art conference facilities in December 2004. The facilities include exhibition halls and delegate suites.

The unique feature of the museum is obviously the hundreds of motorbikes available to guests to view while at any event. Some of the bikes are quite rare but are fully restored and are a real treat to view.

The museum offers thirteen suites available for hire that can cater for most size audiences. The Wardroom is intimate with a seating capacity of 20 through to the Imperial Suite that can cater for 950 people. In this room, crystal chandeliers provide four levels of lighting; it has a versatile video system, 523 separate loud-speaker boxes with a total of 110 drive units and an amplification system rated at 6,000 watts all integrated into the classical décor. It even has Europe’s largest Wurlitzer theatre organ – something you don’t find every day!

Beeches Management Centre
15 minutes from Birmingham City Centre in the leafy suburbs of Bournville is The Beeches Conference Centre. The Conference Centre has 22 high quality conference, training and syndicate rooms in a wide variety of sizes and layouts. The largest pillar free and fully air-conditioned conference suite comfortably seats up to 275 people. There are eight meeting rooms which can hold 15 people theatre style and six suites with an arboricultural focus with names such as Yew, Birch, Maple, Elm, Acorn and Willow.

Full business support services are available and dedicated technical staff are on hand for any event to advise on equipment and facilities. The Beeches restaurant overlooks the extensive gardens and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is also a Beeches Bar and a Garden Lounge for breaks and time out as well as a games room and a putting green.

The West Midlands has plenty to offer the conference organiser in terms of history, unique venues, convenient location within the country, excellent transport links and a warm Brummie welcome. If your delegates are coming from around the UK, Birmingham may well be a logical choice for you.