The Northern Irish city is home to a winning mix of historic and modern event spaces, says Tom Otley

Belfast Waterfront

The Belfast Waterfront concert hall was one of the first buildings to open by the regenerated River Lagan. The main auditorium is a multifunctional space suitable for conferences of up to 2,200 people, award presentations, gala dinners for 450, and exhibitions (there are 37 stands measuring 6 sqm). The Studio theatre can seat up to 380 but also doubles as a conference and exhibition centre – the seating can be removed to create 510 sqm of open space on the ground floor, with set-up options including cabaret, exhibition and classroom. There are 14 meeting rooms and more than 2,500 sqm of event space, and the centre has a proven record for staging events – since opening in 1997, it has welcomed more than five million visitors and hosted more than 2,000 national and international conferences. Many of the spaces come with river and city views, particularly the breakout areas. | 2 Lanyon Place; tel +44 (0)28 9033 4400; waterfront.co.uk

Belfast City Hall

Right in the centre of town, and with several of the main roads leading to it, is City Hall. It isn’t for every event – and there’s a fairly involved process in getting permission to use it – but if your function has some benefit to the Belfast economy and you are granted approval, this is a great place to secure.

From the outside, the Portland stone exterior and dome is like a mini St Paul’s cathedral. Once inside, City Hall is unique, with so much marble – Carrara, Pavonazzo and Brescia – it’s a wonder there’s any left in Italy. Walk up the stairs to the Whispering Gallery – like the one in St Paul’s – and a Greek Cipollino marble colonnade will accompany you to the three function rooms. All have high ceilings and impressive decoration, and have recently been renovated. The Council Chamber is still home to Belfast City Council, while the Reception hall, which seats 150, has a Titanic theme (the ship was built in Belfast). The large Banqueting hall has a vaulted ceiling, stained-glass windows and carved oak panelling, and seats 275 theatre-style. | Donegall Square; tel +44 (0)28 9032 0202; belfastcity.gov.uk/cityhall

Odyssey ARENA

Home to Belfast’s ice hockey team the LBM Giants, as well as a concert venue seating more than 10,000 people, the Odyssey is a flexible facility with pillar-free exhibition space ranging from 1,800 sqm to 3,700 sqm. The large foyer to the main arena can be used as a reception or registration area for visitors, with direct access to the exhibition floor, while at the rear of the building, a secure service yard allows easy access for exhibitors’ vehicles and equipment, ensuring a smooth build.

The main auditorium has a flexible seating arrangement with the lower tier simply being pushed back under the upper one to make more room for events, allowing the venue to accommodate 2,000 to 8,500 delegates. Planners can choose from a variety of seating combinations, including plenary session, break-out and exhibition, or banquet and plenary. Additional meeting and hospitality rooms are available in the Arena, while there are larger breakout facilities in the adjacent Odyssey Pavilion, which can be directly accessed via adjoining doors in the foyer. | 2 Queens Quay; tel +44 (0)28 9076 6000; odysseyarena.com

Ulster Museum

Reopened last year after a £17 million rejuvenation, the museum now has a 23-metre-high atrium reception area that is perfect for receptions and gala dinners (although only outside normal opening hours), while the Belfast room and refurbished lecture theatre with state-of-the-art audio-video facilities is an ideal combination for conferences of up to 200 people.

Functions benefit from natural light in the welcome area and illuminations from the Window of the World exhibition (a kind of world tour of culture and history) on the left. There are excellent branding opportunities, with blank walls for light projection and large screens in the background for beaming images appropriate to the event. As you’d expect from a public facility, all of the spaces are fully accessible and there are bathrooms located next to the welcome area on the ground floor. Automated cloakroom facilities are also available. | Botanic Gardens; tel +44 (0)845 608 0000; ulstermuseum.org.uk

Queen’s University

About 1.5km south of the city centre, Queen’s University sits in its own extensive grounds in one of the best residential areas in Belfast, BT9. Designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, Belfast’s best-known architect of the 19th century, and opened in 1849, the brick mock-Tudor exterior of Queen’s disguises a top-class establishment for 25,000 students, and one of the top 20 research universities in the world.

You enter from formal gardens into the Black and White entrance hall with its stained-glass window – an impressive venue for registration – then have a choice of several areas, including the Canada room and the Council Chamber, which has a stunning painting by Michelle Rodgers, Women Emerging from the Shadows. The Naughton Gallery is home to some of the university’s silver collection, as well as displaying changing modern artists, and there’s also the wood-panelled former library, now the Great hall, perfect for private dinners of up to 150 and with famous alumni staring down from the walls, including Irish president Mary McAleese and poet Seamus Heaney. The largest venue is the Sir William Whitla hall, which seats up to 1,200 delegates or can be used for dinners of up to 350 guests. | University Road; tel +44 (0)28 9097 5047; queenseventus.com; qub.ac.uk

Event-friendly hotels

Europa

A famous four-star, city-centre property with 272 rooms, a large ballroom on the first floor holding 750 people, and a new 515 sqm exhibition space below it in what was once a nightclub. The Europa (pictured above) is well set up for the conference market, with 16 meeting rooms. The bedroom stock divides into Suite, Executive, Superior and Classic, so is good if you need a similar level of accommodation for large groups, and standards are high as a result of considerable investment. The Eurobusiness centre on the second floor is well-equipped and the hotel as a whole is used to dealing with international visitors. | Great Victoria Street; tel +44 (0)28 9026 6010; hastingshotels.com/europa

Merchant

Superb five-star boutique hotel in the old Ulster Bank, currently short on meeting space and with a focus on leisure guests, but this summer a new £16 million wing will boost the number of rooms from 26 to 64 and will include six meeting and events rooms, a luxury spa, decadent jazz bar, rooftop garden and gym. | 35-39 Waring Street; tel +44 (0)28 9023 4888; themerchanthotel.com

Radisson Blu

Ideal for small to mid-sized events, meetings and private dining, the Radisson is part of the Gasworks development on the site of the former Belfast Gasworks, which closed in 1988. It’s about ten minutes’ walk from City Hall. The hotel has 120 rooms, of which 89 are Standard, 22 are Business Class, and eight are one-bedroom suites. There is also one extended suite that includes a boardroom. The five meeting rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, free wifi for meeting delegates and guests, computerised touchscreen audio-visual facilities and on-site parking. Capacities range from 12 boardroom-style to 150 theatre-style. All rooms have plasma screens, air conditioning and video projectors, and PA systems are available on request. The Gasworks, 3 Cromac Place, Ormeau Road; tel +44 (0)28 9043 4065; radissonblu.co.uk

Fitzwilliam

Open since March 2009, this 130-room sister hotel to the Fitzwilliam in Dublin – run and designed by the same teams – has four meeting spaces, three of which are on the top floor with full-length windows and great panoramic views of the low-rise city centre. The Assembly room is the largest space (59 sqm) and comes with a 60-inch plasma screen, video-conferencing and free wifi access, while a boardroom on the mezzanine floor can double as a private dining room for 20. The hotel also has an impressive restaurant – Menu by Kevin Thornton – and a great bar. | Great Victoria Street; tel +44 (0)28 9044 2080, fitzwilliamhotelbelfast.com

Culloden estate and spa

Out of town, just beyond Belfast City airport, but with stunning views of Belfast Lough, this 105-room property is well worth considering as an easily reached, out-of-town spot for delegates for an off-site meeting. It has eight conferencing suites including one for up to 600 for a banquet, plus an outstanding spa. | Bangor Road; tel +44 (0)28 9039 3010; hastingshotels.com/culloden

 

Useful information

Tourism Ireland 0207 518 0800 [email protected]; www.irelandinspires.co.uk

Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau (gotobelfast.com) provides a full conference support service to help with familiarisation visits, accommodation booking and appointment of local conference organisers. It can also provide suggestions for social programmes, civic hospitality and pre- and post-conference tours. Call +44 (0)28 9023 9026 or email [email protected] for more information.

What’s coming?

The changes to Belfast have been immense, but there are more coming, despite the economic downturn. The Titanic was built in the Belfast shipyards, sailing away on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. On the centenary, the five-storey Titanic Signature Building visitor attraction will open as the nucleus of Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The building will take its shape from the five-pointed star logo of the White Star Line shipping company and will celebrate both the Titanic and her sister ship, Olympic, as well as Belfast’s shipbuilding and industrial heritage.

It will also connect existing heritage landmarks such as Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House, the Harland and Wolff Headquarters Building and Drawing Offices, SS Nomadic, Hamilton Graving Dock and the Slipways. Features will include a 50-metre model of the ship, a “trip to the bottom of the sea” to view the wreck, and a “flying theatre” using cinematic projection technology to take visitors on a aerial trip over Belfast and Northern Ireland. Visit nitb.com