DUBLIN’S NEW convention centre at Spencer Dock has secured bookings for 45 conferences and nine banquets in advance of its opening in September.
Events booked to date at Convention Centre Dublin have a distinctly medical theme. They include the EU Geriatric Medicine Society conference in late September; Fertility 2011; the Congress of European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisations, and the International Conference of Emergency Medicine.
One of the largest events will be the International Bar Association conference with 4,500 legal delegates expected to attend in October 2012.
The centre has a capacity of 8,000. The International Statistics Institute will bring some 3,000 delegates here in August 2011.
The centre has also had about 200 date-specific options, or serious inquiries, for events due to happen as far away as 2021, according to its communications manager Patricia Sugrue.
She said the bookings were in line with, or ahead of, its targets and that the confirmed bookings would generate spending of more than €73 million, not counting the cost of holding the conferences. She said a typical conference delegate spent about €1,400 on a stay in Ireland.
The centre currently employs more than 40 people but is expected to employ up to 250 when it opens for business.
