After a year in which Scotland celebrated its sporting heritage by hosting golf's Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Perthshire and what organizers have called the "best Commonwealth Games ever" in Glasgow, as well as heralding its national heritage in an independence referendum that was closely watched around the globe, the country is settling down a bit.
The Commonwealth Games in particular -- one of the biggest television events in the world -- helped Scotland as a whole attract a nearly 10 percent increase in visitors in 2014, and 2015 is looking strong as well. The excitement of the Ryder Cup brought the attention of golfers to the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles resort, as well as St. Andrew's and all the country's other great links.
That pride is also visible in the meetings, incentives, conventions, and events market, where exciting and ambitious new facilities have been and continue to be developed around the country.
In Aberdeen, plans have been approved to replace the current, 8,500-person Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre with a $500-million-dollar state-of-the-art facility featuring a 97,000-square-foot exhibition hall that can act as a 15,000-person/10,000-seat arena located very near Aberdeen International Airport.
Glasgow's spectacular, 12,500-seat SSE Hydro arena at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre is attracting 140 concerts and other events annually in its second year, as well as spurring the growth of nightlife and dining venues within a five-minute walk.
New this year, however, is the University of Strathclyde's Technology and Innovation Centre, designed as a state-of-the-art research hub encouraging close collaboration between academics, business, industry, and the public sector. It opened this year with a tiered auditorium capable of hosting up to 450 and another auditorium for 150.
At more than 500 years old, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is one of the oldest medical schools in the world, which doesn't mean it can't have something new (well, old but refurbished). A former language school building is being renovated into a three-level event space with spaces ranging from boardrooms to a 160-seat auditorium.
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This article appears in the April 2015 issue of Successful Meetings.