Here's TTGmice's weekly round-up of MICE developments outside of Asia-Pacific.
Crowne Plaza Dubai Marina opens
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) has opened the Crowne Plaza Dubai Marina, a 20-minute drive from the Expo 2020 site.
Located on the banks of Dubai Marina with direct access from the promenade, the 24-storey building boasts 273 guestrooms including 61 Club Rooms and 32 suites. A club lounge on the fourth floor is available exclusively for Club guests.
Meanwhile on the second floor are a number of meeting and conference rooms, spread across 460m2, including the Marina’s first ballroom with natural light. Recreational facilities include a 24-hour gym, outdoor swimming pool, and six dining concepts ranging from a Thai restaurant to Nara, an outdoor Arabic-style shisha lounge.
Aventri and VenueBook ink partnership
Aventri and VenueBook have teamed up to integrate VenueBook’s direct booking technology and database of 1,500 non-traditional venues in the US with Aventri’s enterprise event management software (EMS) platform.
The VenueBook database includes more than 1,500 non-traditional venues in the New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and Washington DC markets, with expansion planned in 2020 to multiple additional US markets.
The solution will enable planners to manage the entire procurement process – from sourcing and negotiating to contracting, paying and reporting – through a single, secure platform.
The integrated platform will be available as part of Aventri Strategic Venue Sourcing. Planners will access VenueBook’s non-traditional event space and booking engine directly through the Aventri dashboard.
The new partnership expands Aventri’s range of venues that currently ranges from vineyards and wineries to breweries and boutique hotels. Such venues are able to accommodate gatherings from intimate board retreats to large-scale events for up to 6,000 people.
NürnbergMesse to build fourth convention centre
Germany-headquartered trade fair company NürnbergMesse has announced that it will be building the NCC Süd exhibition venue, with work commencing in 2024.
The new facility means that, following the 2021 runs of the Spielwarenmesse and HOGA, the Messe’s present Hall 3 will become a construction site.
The new NCC Süd will be the fourth events centre at the site and will be flanked by neighbouring Exhibition Halls 3A and 3C. Providing around 32,000m2 of gross exhibition space, the NCC Süd will form the capstone of the overall 400m-long complex designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Like Halls 3A and 3C, NCC Süd will also aim for certification from the German Sustainable Building Council, the DGNB. The total investment for NCC Süd is expected to come in around €300 million (US$326 million).
