For its opening event, EICC's Lennox Suite was set up as a tiered banquet and featured a concert by Laura Mvula. (Photo by EICC)
With the new expansion, Edinburgh International Conference Centre not only added more than 16,000 square feet of space, but also has installed an innovative moving floor system in the Lennox Suite. Around 11 miles of cabling sit underneath the floor in order to completely change the room’s layout in a matter of hours.
“The standard layouts are a flat floor, as an auditorium, arena, tiered, and cabaret style,” said Karen Wood, head of events at EICC. “Transforming from one layout to another takes a couple of hours, but the floor is on a very sophisticated spiral lift system, with huge support structures underneath to move the floor up and down.”
Safety procedures, including clearing the room, need to be enacted before changing the layout.
“The moving floor system enables us to switch effortlessly, and in a fraction of time required in convention halls, from an international association conference center setup for 3,000 to a cabaret dinner venue for 750,” said Jill Spink, marketing communications at EICC.
There is also a SkyDeck tension wire grid system at the top of the room, which is a floor of mesh panels that allow safe access to lighting, cables and rigging. BDP served as the architect for the expansion. The Lennox Suite also has removable partition walls.
An animated tour of the expansion that shows several setup options for the moving floor system in the Lennox Suite.
Though the state-of-the-art technology takes quite a bit of power, EICC has ensured that the entire facility is as energy efficient as possible. The focus on sustainability, including energy-saving modes on escalators that don’t begin to run unless a patron approaches, are a top priority. Wood said that EICC even has copyrighted Plan-It Green and has a team on board to monitor the sustainability of the facility.
“And then, of course, there are our accountants who monitor the budget,” added Wood.
Many of the EICC staff have been at the venue since the design of the original building.
“We repeated a number of times that the original project was on time, on budget, and with no litigation, so we repeated that like a mantra throughout this construction,” said Wood.
The renovation cost £30 million ($46 million) just for the expansion of the EICC portion, and was able to be funded largely because the piece of land next to the original convention center had become so valuable. The Edinburgh City Council owns the land and the conference center and agreed to underwrite the project.
“On top of our floors, we have several floors of prime city-center office space that has already attracted some fantastic clients like the Green Investment Bank,” said Wood. Selling the office space has also gone to fund the project. The project in its entirety, including both the convention center floors and the office space, cost £80 million (more than $121 million).
“We first broke ground in July 2010 on the space adjacent to the original EICC building,” said Spink. EICC never had to close during construction of the addition. The expanded EICC hosted its official opening event May 2 for about 750 guests, featuring a performance by Laura Mvula.
The expansion of EICC involves more than just the new Lennox Suite. There is also a new champagne bar called Platform 5 Café, breakout suites and an additional entrance called the Atrium, with a glass façade to let in lots of light.
“The new space is truly beautiful. It’s shifted the heart and soul of the conference center,” said Wood. She added that the addition, which doubles the footprint of the facility, gives EICC a “new lease on life.”
The exterior of Edinburgh International Conference Centre's new addition, which took nearly three years to build. (Photo by EICC)
Previously, larger conventions would expand out of the conference center into other venues around the city, such as the nearby Usher Hall, which was often used for opening sessions and ceremonies. With the expansion, larger events are starting to see Edinburgh International Conference Centre as an option that makes sense.
The International Investigative Dermatology conference, May 8-11, was the first client to use the new space. Around 2,500 people filled the EICC. The IID conference brought several attendees from the British Association of Dermatologists.
“They have another conference that they always thought was too big to come here, and now they’re considering this as a venue,” added Wood.
Upcoming events include serving as one of the host venues for the citywide Edinburgh Festival Fringe arts festival, Aug. 2-26; the Scottish Business Awards with former U.S. President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker, June 21; and the European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium, Sept 9-13.
There are no naming rights at EICC, rather, the names of the facility’s rooms evoke a local flavor.
“In the original building, there was a competition to name all of the different rooms. A young girl chose to name them after Scottish Hills,” said Wood. For instance, one of the rooms in the original facility is called the Pentland Suite, and the Pentland Hills is one of the biggest ranges around Edinburgh.
“Moving into the new space, we just added a few extra hill ranges, which explains the Lennox, Lammermuir, Moffat, Lowther and Menteither suites,” she added.
Interviewed for this story: Jill Spink and Karen Wood, +44 (0) 131 519 4091
Several time-lapse videos of the construction are available on EICC's YouTube page.
Check out this video from the opening event.