News & Press Releases

Microsoft stages biggest event ever held at Congress Centre

The largest event ever staged at Congress Centre took place on 11th and 12th September and was an overwhelming success, further evidence that Congress Centre is fast becoming one of the best conference & events venues in central London. The 2-day conference delivering 36 sessions – Mix UK 07 – 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.

Highly-complex
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 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.

Entertainment
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.

Enjoyment
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.

Ideal
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.”

Important
Ruby Lyall, Conference & Sales Manager at Congress Centre, says “This was a very important event for us. Over the last couple of years, following the venue’s total refurbishment, we have been working hard to raise awareness of Congress Centre and attract more blue chip companies and prominent organisations to the venue with great success. Clients including John Lewis, Coutts, Barclays, Hobbs and the UK Film Council have all held successful events at Congress Centre and we were very pleased to welcome Microsoft to the venue for the first time. I’m particularly delighted that the feedback we’ve had from Microsoft and JB Events has been so positive following the event. It was fantastic to see all areas of the venue being utilised simultaneously. There was a terrific atmosphere during the event and I’m very pleased that together we succeeded in delivering a great event.”

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