How the People Make Glasgow brand is more than just a slogan for the SECC

I’m with colleagues when I first meet Kathleen Warden, Conference Sales Director at the SECC in Glasgow. It’s a few short days after Hogmanay and though it’s crisp outside Kathleen is positively brimming with excitement as we sit down for coffee in the warm and cosy interior of the Clydebuilt bar & kitchen.

She is excited about Glasgow, the SECC and its people, not necessarily in that order but it’s a story she is keen to tell: there is a real sense of pride about the venue, the place and the relationships being forged with the likes of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, a partnership which has flourished in recent years and perhaps is a living embodiment of the kind of community ethos invoked by the People Make Glasgow brand.

It’s a slogan that has proved to be tourism gold for the city as well, having been endorsed for its marketing nous and sense of real meaning by the New York Times.

Yes, Glasgow is very much a city at ease with itself; in the two years since the Commonwealth Games the place doesn’t feel as if it is coming to terms with loss, as can happen with global cities in the aftermath of a ‘mega event’.

“I think the Commonwealth Games actually endorsed our ability to deliver complex and challenging events,” says Kathleen. “But this is something we’ve been doing, in the case of the SECC at least, for the last two decades. And I think what our citywide branding sought to evidence, and does actually demonstrate, is that we have the people, the skills and expertise which differentiates us from the rest. I really believe that.”

If you cast your eye outside the centre itself, unveiled 30 years ago by the Queen on an admittedly rather barren-looking patch of wasteland, the skyline has also altered tremendously, as a result of both pre- and post-Commonwealth Games investment in infrastructure.

World-leading architects Foster & Partners created the now iconic Armadillo and more recently the SSE Hydro arena, which act as the visual eye candy alongside the more functional SECC; the Zaha Hadid Transport Museum glitters on the horizon, and the Glasgow Science Centre also competes for the prize of the most shimmering pearl on the Clyde.

“These places really are as cool as they get,” adds Kathleen. “But it’s not just the great architecture and the skyline; we’ve got five hotels on campus and another three being added, giving us a total of 1,600 beds for delegates. And just a short walk away is one of the most thriving restaurant districts in the UK, in Finnieston. There are around 40 restaurants there now – it’s a really funky and up-and-coming place.”

Whilst painting a picture of a place may be pretty and romantic Kathleen inevitably wants to convey the sense of Glasgow as a continually developing place as well.

“If you look at a map 20 years ago, when the perception was that the SECC was an out-of-town industrial area, and look at what the area is like now, it’s totally transformed,” she says. “We’ve had massive infrastructure development, we’re sitting next to the number two live entertainment venue in the world by ticket sales at the SSE Hydro, placing it above Madison Square Gardens and Berlin, and the SECC is a very big and growing player in the global conference market, which is sited on an ever-evolving events campus. Whilst a few people still have the perception of Glasgow
as an industrial city, it’s a far
cry from how it was in the 1960s.”

Kathleen’s enthusiasm for the city may be infectious, and ever so slightly partisan, but the guide books line up behind her: The Rough Guide, Fodder’s, The Telegraph, The Guardian and Wanderlust have all placed the city on their bucket lists.

There is, however, another topic Kathleen is keen to talk about, and that’s the SECC and its business focus.

It is of course well known for big expos and exhibitions with the likes of ComicCon packing the rafters with an assembled cast of Darth Vaders or Stormtroopers. But the venue has also become a destination for huge 2,000-plus delegate events for the large conference market, for the likes of the Association of Medical Education in Europe. Doctors also declared last year’s annual Royal College of General Practitioners gathering “their best conference ever”; incidentally the SECC has been developing these sector specialisms, and medical communities are increasingly choosing the SECC as a venue.

Whilst the SECC continues to focus on the ‘association business’ end of the conference market – a highly competitive and lucrative space nationally and internationally – Kathleen is also keen to let me know that it can be “nimble and responsive” for smaller meetings, and local business.

“We’re doing well in that space and we’re brilliant at hosting inaugural meetings, but we want to create a much better understanding that we can do smaller events as well,” she says.

“We’re less well known for the smaller stuff but we can cater for upwards of 50 delegates just as well as the larger affairs. We want people to know this is no longer a filler part of our business but increasingly part of our mainstay.”

Of course the SECC also caters for highly bespoke events – ones like the digital 360D conference –  and it hosts multiple events at once, without them losing their identity. It all combines to give a nice buzz to the place, Kathleen says.

“It’s quite a nice contrast to some conference environments, which can be a bit sterile if they’re not particularly well populated. We like having lots on, that’s one of our strengths.”

I’m also curious as to what makes the place tick. In particular I’m keen to speak to the team behind its best year ever for conference sales in 2015/16, for which corporate meetings and events accounted for 30 per cent of all sales.

Glenda Carlyle, one of the corporate sales managers, puts the overall performance down to strong relationships with both corporate and association clients and also working ever more closely with the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, collaborating in joint pitches.

“Our intention is to grow both the association business and corporate bookings for the next financial year and to continue the joint approach with the GCMB,” she says. “But it has been a really exceptional year and the result of a lot of hard work and dedication from both teams.”

Glenda echoes Kathleen’s emphasis on bringing in smaller meetings and AGMs from the local corporate market to the SECC. There are rooms in the SECC that can be used for corporate meetings at the same time as larger events are going on, without encroaching on each other; the spaces can even be adapted to suit the number of delegates attending an event. The Loch Suite is designed exactly for that purpose, delivering smart, modern facilities perfectly suited to the corporate market.

“It’s maybe not something people are aware of, but these are spaces that can also be changed in aspect to fit the requirements of an event,” Glenda adds. “We are putting more focus on that, to let the corporate and local market know what we can do.”

Keeping order books full in the short, medium and long term is a focus for any conference venue and the SECC is no exception. Some business has been booked as far ahead as 2025; but it’s the people theme that strikes me as being something that perhaps stands the SECC apart from the crowd: it seems an undeniably positive place to work, and the sales team are experienced and well-versed in their roles.

Getting out and projecting the SECC brand and influence is also very much part of the day job and in the week I’m hounding staff for information, the SECC has a stand at the Confex conference expo in London alongside, once again, the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau,  where the two are drumming up business for the city.

And networking doesn’t stop at these shores. When I catch up with Kathleen she has just returned from the XL conference in Abu Dhabi, sounding remarkably fresh given it’s a Monday morning and she’s just flown home at the weekend.

In fact the XL event is an international client venue workshop which launched in Glasgow in 2003, and which has gone from strength to strength ever since.

“It’s the tendency for the SECC to lead these kind of events, which bring together highly selective groups of international venues and clients, that has cemented our already well established reputation on the global conference market stage,” Kathleen says.

“The SECC has really been at the heart of this workshop, and it’s something we’re very proud of. I think that’s what we’re good at, getting out there and projecting ourselves as one of the leaders in our field.’”

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