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New centre wins €45m in bookings

The Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) has secured €45m worth of business for the capital more than a year before opening. Scheduled to open in September 2010, the Treasury Holdings-developed national conference and event venue will host six leading international conferences.

They include: the Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (3,000 delegates); the International Statistical Institute (3,000 delegates) and the International Bar Association (3,000 delegates). The centre has also beaten Vienna to host Europe's biggest gathering
of scientists, the Euroscience Open Forum, in 2012 when about  8,000 delegates are expected to attend. "We have 15 events booked in that will bring an economic benefit of €45m, excluding air fares," Dermod Dwyer, CCD chairman, said "We are quietly confident we will soon be able to announce more."  The CCD is also awaiting a final decision on eight more large bids and has 58 international bids in total in  progress at present. "Dublin has tended to be a business-taker rather than a market-maker," Dwyer said "We didn't have the facilities to go for the big conferences, but now we do."

Dwyer said that the CCD offering was proving resilient in the downturn. "I haven't seen any impact in terms of the pipeline. They are planning up to seven years out so things could be different by then."   However, Dwyer warned that if the downturn continues,  it could impact the number of delegates attending. The CCD, led by chief executive Nick Waight, is currently hiring and plans to increase its sales team from about 12 to 35 in the coming months.  About  500 people are employed building the venue and, when it opens,"the CCD expects to take on 250 people full-time, rising to 500 for big conferences.

Treasury has also applied to increase the height Of a hotel adjoining the centre from 14 to 35 storeys. "We are determined to build the hotel [of 35 storeys], although this might take longer in the current climate," said Dwyer.   The 500,000-sq-ft building, designed by Pritzker award- winning  architect Kevin Roche, is due to open on September 1, 2010. Dwyer said he did not see the CCD as competing with Citywest, Dublin's other big conference centre. He said: "They have a different type of package. They are looking for large, repeat Irish conferences at a very different price point to us."