Business leaders from the business tourism sector in Leeds are descending on the capital today, 25th May, to showcase Leeds as a premier national and international conference and events location.

‘Leeds in London’ is a business event organised by Marketing Leeds to coincide with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, in order to promote Leeds’ key business strengths.

The aim of this year’s event is to showcase the city’s strengths in the business tourism sector, and so has been organised with Leeds City Council, Conference Leeds, Leeds Hotels Association (LHA) and Square Meal Venues and Events, one of the UK’s leading business tourism publications.

Representatives from Leeds’ conference venues including City Inn, Flybe, The Hilton Hotel, Leeds United, The Met Hotel, Radisson Blu, Royal Armouries International, Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa and Well Met Conferencing will be meeting 40 London based conference buyers with the aim of attracting future business to Leeds from companies such as BNP Paribas, Deloitte, HSBC, ITV, Starbucks and The Times. Key tourism trade press will also be attending.

Deborah Green, Chief Executive of Marketing Leeds said: “Leeds has built a reputation as a premier destination for conferences and events, with some award winning venues and a whole host of attractions for the business traveller to experience once the working day is over. We have organised the second ‘Leeds in London’ through a collaboration of city partners which brings together key figures in the business tourism sector to establish new and develop existing relationships with key buyers and business tourism media. We hope that the event will attract further business to venues in the city and raise the profile of Leeds to a wider audience.”

Gordon Jackson, Chairman of Leeds Hotels Association said: “We are delighted to be attending this event in association with Marketing Leeds and the City Council. We have so much to be proud of in Leeds – the city is a first class destination for conferencing and events and this is a great opportunity to showcase the best of our venues and hotels to those blue chip businesses interested in bringing business to the city.”

Nicola Lockwood, Manager of Conference Leeds added: "Many of the buyers we would like to do business with are based in London, so this is a great opportunity for us to meet London buyers on their home soil and with the opportunity for them to visit the Leeds garden at Chelsea we have not been short of takers. It's great that Leeds venues are joining us so we can make sure our guests on the day go away with an idea of the warm Yorkshire welcome and high levels of service and value for money they can expect in Leeds."

Today’s event follows on from last year’s ‘Leeds in London’ in 2009, the focus of which was to showcase Leeds to an international audience, primarily promoting the legal and financial sectors. Guests included directors of trade for six countries including Martyn Warr, Director of Trade for Spain.

As a result of this event, ‘Leeds in Barcelona, a festival of commerce and culture’ was born and 115 representatives from Leeds headed to the business capital of Catalonia in March this year to support the festival’s 30 events.

Guests at today’s event will be treated to a tour of the Leeds Hesco Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, followed by a Yorkshire themed dinner on a Thames River cruise with entertainment by Leeds’ own Opera North.

Marketing Leeds is delighted that Leeds has won its first ever gold medal for excellence at the Chelsea Flower Show. The stunning elite show garden entry The HESCO Garden 2010, produced by Leeds City Council's Parks and Countryside staff with engineering design and support from sponsors HESCO Bastion Limited, wowed the judges and visitors alike to earn the highest-ranking level of award at the prestigious event in London.


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