admin

Microsoft stages biggest conference event ever held at Congress Centre

The largest event ever staged at Congress Centre was an overwhelming success, further evidence that the centre is fast becoming one of the best conference & events venues in central London. The 2-day conference held by Microsoft successfully delivered 36 sessions and attracted 500 designers and web developers on both days, who attended the event in search of creative inspiration and to learn more about web innovations and Microsoft technologies from leading industry gurus.

JB Events, who organised the event for Microsoft, delivered the highly-complex event seamlessly. After the keynote speech on the first day, four break-out tracks ran simultaneously using Congress Hall, the Congress Suites on lower ground and Invision 1 and Invision 2 on the 2nd floor. This meant that there were 58 speakers over the two days. CJ Design Associates created a bespoke stage for the event in conjunction Blitz Communications, making use of Congress Centre’s in-house projection facilities. They also installed large plasma screens in all meeting break-out rooms. At the end of day one, a Guitar Hero 2 Xbox tournament was staged in the Marble Hall using Xbox pods. The final was then held on the main stage at the end of the drinks reception.

A Tablet PC caricaturist was also hired to draw caricatures of delegates on a Tablet PC attached to a plasma screen. Delegates were then given their caricature on a memory stick to take home. During the event, guests enjoyed welcome smoothies and mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments. For lunch, bowl food such as mushroom risotto, noodles, salad nicoise and steak and ale pie was served on trays by a fleet of waiters supplied by Congress Centre.

According to Amanda Glasgow, Event Manager at Microsoft Ltd, “We were looking for a slightly more unusual venue than a conference hotel for this event and Congress Centre was ideal as it is both individual and slightly quirky with good facilities, in-house AV and a very central London location.

Becky Eydes, Event Producer at JB Events felt the team were simply excellent both pre-event and especially on-site and I could not fault their service, professionalism and friendliness. The fact that their office is based down on the conference floor next to the organiser’s office meant that it was always easy to contact them. They were very responsive and we didn’t have to wait for anything we asked for”.

Ruby Chagger, Conference & Sales Manager at Congress Centre, said “We were very pleased to welcome Microsoft to the venue for the first time and I’m particularly delighted that their post-event feedback is so positive. It was fantastic to see all areas of the conference venue being utilised simultaneously. There was a terrific atmosphere and I’m very pleased that together we succeeded in delivering an exceptional event.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *