Cardiff Meetings & Conferences Guide
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CARDIFF MEETINGS & CONFERENCES GUIDE www.meetincardiff.com WELCOME TO CARDIFF CONTENTS AN ATTRACTIVE CITY, A GREAT VENUE 02 Welcome to Cardiff That’s Cardiff – a city on the move We’ll help you find the right venue and 04 Essential Cardiff and rapidly becoming one of the UK’s we’ll take the hassle out of booking 08 Cardiff - a Top Convention City top destinations for conventions, hotels – all free of charge. All you need Meet in Cardiff conferences, business meetings. The to do is call or email us and one of our 11 city’s success has been recognised by conference organisers will get things 14 Make Your Event Different the British Meetings and Events Industry moving for you. Meanwhile, this guide 16 The Cardiff Collection survey, which shows that Cardiff is will give you a flavour of what’s on offer now the seventh most popular UK in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. 18 Cardiff’s Capital Appeal conference destination. 20 Small, Regular or Large 22 Why Choose Cardiff? 31 Incentives Galore 32 #MCCR 38 Programme Ideas 40 Tourist Information Centre 41 Ideas & Suggestions 43 Cardiff’s A to Z & Cardiff’s Top 10 CF10 T H E S L E A CARDIFF S I S T E N 2018 N E T S 2019 I A S DD E L CAERDY S CARDIFF CAERDYDD | meetincardiff.com | #MeetinCardiff E 4 H ROAD T 4UW RAIL ESSENTIAL INFORMATION AIR CARDIFF – THE CAPITAL OF WALES Aberdeen Location: Currency: E N T S S I E A South East Wales British Pound Sterling L WELCOME! A90 E S CROESO! Population: Phone Code: H 18 348,500 Country code 44, T CR M90 Area code: 029 20 EDINBURGH DF D GLASGOW M8 C D Language: Time Zone: A Y A68 R D M74 A7 English and Welsh Greenwich Mean Time D R I E Newcastle F F • C A (GMT + 1 in summertime) CONTACT US A69 BELFAST Contact: Twinned with: Meet in Cardiff team M6 Nantes – France, Stuttgart – Germany, Xiamen – A1 China, Hordaland – Norway, Lugansk – Ukraine Address: Isle of Man M62 Meet in Cardiff M62 Distance from London: DUBLIN The Courtyard – CY6 LIVERPOOL Approximately 2 hours by road or train. MANCHESTER County Hall M6 M1 Major Airports: Atlantic Wharf A5 A470 Flights to Cardiff Airport are available from Cardiff CF10 4UW BIRMINGHAM Aberystwyth M54 numerous destinations with a large amount of flights Cambridge Telephone: M5 available through Flybe.com including Faro, Geneva, A487 A470 M50 M1 +44 (0)29 2087 1846 M11 Dusseldorf, Cork, Dublin, Munich and Verona to name M4 but a few. Bristol, Birmingham and London Airports Website: Swansea M4 are within easy reach. Bristol Airport is within an www.MeetinCardiff.com BRISTOL LONDON CARDIFF M3 M25 Dover hour’s drive away with Brimingham and London M20 Email: Southampton Heathrow accessible within 2 hours drive. Aberdeen M5 [email protected] Exeter Airport Transfers: Edinburgh A38 Twitter: T9 Airport Express to Cardiff Central Station runs www.twitter.com/meetincardiff every 30 minutes during the day, 7 days a week. Glasgow Facebook: Newcastle Rideways Transport: www.facebook.com/visitcardiff Belfast visitcardiff.com/seedo/rideways/ Copenhagen Anglesey Cardiff - Flight Link Wales: Amsterdam visitcardiff.com/seedo/flight-link-wales/ Closer than you think London Heathrow (2hrs ) CARDIFF Berlin Road – Cardiff is on the A48/M4, Coach Parking: Bristol (1hr ) providing a direct route from London There are coach drop-off and pick-up points near Dusseldorf and the South East. The M50 and M5 most of the main attractions e.g. Cardiff Castle and Jersey link with the M4 from the Midlands and the National Museum with longer-term parking Paris North of England and the South West available close to the city centre. of England. A dedicated off-street coach park with 24 hour CCTV is available close to the city centre at Sophia Rail – Trains link most main cities with Gardens, off Cathedral Road, CF11 9HW. The Council- Cardiff. The journey between London managed coach park also has toilet facilities and is Paddington and Cardiff is 2 hours and long stay 7 days a week. trains depart every 30 minutes. Other areas include North Road and ‘The Flourish’ Air – Cardiff Airport has direct flights near the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. from over 50 destinations and also Barcelona connecting flights from over 800 Getting Around: destinations worldwide. Cardiff is a compact city and can easily be explored Palma cardiff-airport.com on foot with the majority of attractions, shops, Rome Alicante flybe.com restaurants and hotels all within the a few minutes Milan Verona of each other. For more information, go to: www. Malaga For more travel information, Social media icons - Freepik.com visitcardiff.com/gettinghereandaround/getting- Photography: Cardiff Council library and Qatar/ please see page 36. around/ Crown copyright (2018) Visit Wales Doha 6 CARDIFF CAERDYDD | meetincardiff.com | #MeetinCardiff #MeetinCardiff | @MeetinCardiff | CARDIFF CAERDYDD 7 ACCOMMODATION Cardiff offers a wide range of accommodation to cater for all Meet in Cardiff is a free one-stop shop to support event needs including luxury hotels, cosy B&Bs and guest houses organisers, planners and PCO’s with delegate accommodation for smaller groups, serviced and self catering accommodation and venue sourcing. If you’d like to speak to someone about and hostels. Cardiff is also proud to have an Hoteliers organising a conference in Cardiff, give our dedicated team a Association which there are 30 hotel members. call on +44 (0)29 2087 1846 or email [email protected]. Hotel Star Summary of Serviced Accommodation Rating in Cardiff St David’s Hotel & Spa 5 Grading Serviced Hilton Hotel 5 Accommodation Establishments The Vale Resort & Spa 4 5 � 2 Mercure Holland House Hotel 4 4 � 10 Cardiff Marriott Hotel 4 3 � 8 Radisson Blu 4 2 � 1 The Angel Hotel 4 B&Bs/Guest Houses 46 Copthorne Hotel Cardiff 4 Listed 3 Jury’s Inn 4 BUDGET 14 Novotel Hotel 4 UNGRADED Hotels 11 Park Plaza 4 Ungraded B&Bs 28 Clayton Hotel Cardiff 4 Hostel 6 Holiday Inn North M4 J32 4 TOTAL SERVICED 129 Hotel Indigo 4 Campus 3 The Exchange Hotel 4 Campsites 1 Park Inn by Radisson Cardiff City Centre 3 TOTAL INC CAMPUS 133 Cardiff has a comprehensive selection of hotels and accommodation from luxury hotels to budget hostels. The New House Country Hotel 3 Village Urban Resort Cardiff 3 Future Inn Cardiff 3 Holiday Inn City Centre 3 Jolyons at No.10 3 Jolyons Boutique Hotel, Cardiff Bay 3 Sleeperz 3 Sandringham Hotel 2 The Big Sleep Budget Express by Holiday Inn (Cardiff Bay) Budget Ibis Hotel Cardiff City Budget Holiday Inn Express Cardiff Airport Budget Ibis Budget Budget A Space in the City Serviced Apartment University Accommodation In terms of the larger South East Wales region (Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, RCT, Torfaen, VOG) a (available outside of term time only) ballpark figure supplied by Visit Wales is approx 23,000 bed spaces in 580 Serviced Accommodation establishments (Source: Cardiff Council Tourism). Cardiff University Campus Cardiff Metropolitan Campus Cardiff Metropolitan (Private Halls) Off Campus For more information and a full list of accommodation University of South Wales (Cardiff) Campus visit www.visitcardiff.com/wheretostay 8 CARDIFF CAERDYDD | meetincardiff.com | #MeetinCardiff #MeetinCardiff | @MeetinCardiff | CARDIFF CAERDYDD 9 WHY CHOOSE CARDIFF? Cardiff is the closest European capital to London and is only 2 hours by train – less time than it takes from Earl’s Court to ExCel. CARDIFF – A TOP CONVENTION CITY One of the UK’s top cities for conferences, meetings and conventions. Clockwise, from above: he city has been adding the magnificent Wales Millennium Cardiff Castle, in the heart new facilities every year Centre, the Senedd building of the of the city. NoFit State Tfor a decade and can now National Assembly and the quirky circus at National Museum, Cardiff. offer the very best shopping Norwegian Church overlook one of Cardiff Central Library. Cardiff and a wide range of bars and Europe’s most stylish waterfronts. Castle viewed from Bute Park. restaurants. Cardiff just keeps Reardon Smith Theatre, National getting better but still retains its The sport and leisure offer in Museum, Cardiff. roots. It’s still the 15-minute city, Cardiff Bay is vast and constantly where top hotels and conference improving. The International venues are just a short stroll Sports Village offers a 50 metre away from St David’s, Cardiff’s swimming pool and ice rink plus superb shopping centre, with Cardiff International White Water; the National Museum, Cardiff an Olympic standard canoe Castle and the Principality and rafting centre. If you fancy Stadium also right in the heart getting in touch with your inner of the city centre. Cardiff Bay child there’s Techniquest and for is just 10 minutes from the city afternoon tea try the Norwegian centre by train, bus or taxi. Here, Church. Meet in Cardiff were invaluable to us in organising our recent international AUSTIN LOCKWOOD Congress in Cardiff. We were personally shown round a range of suitable venues Secretary of the Welsh early in the planning process, advised about suitable social activities for our delegates Correspondence Chess and fully assisted in making all the necessary bookings; we were even provided with an Federation online system for hotel bookings. Next year our Congress will be held in Bremen; if the German organisers have access to a service half as good as the Meet in Cardiff team, it will be another successful event. 10 CARDIFF CAERDYDD | meetincardiff.com | #MeetinCardiff #MeetinCardiff | @MeetinCardiff | CARDIFF CAERDYDD 11 We can guide you to the best venue for your event. Try a few of these: MEET IN CARDIFF Dinner for 1,000? Drinks reception with With 8,413 bed spaces a difference? No problem.