A Guide to Hosting Your Professional Services Conference in Liverpool

What are professional services conferences and why are they important?

The professional service sector includes a wide range of businesses and industries; including legal, accounting, engineering, consultancy, and marketing firms. Each of these has their own values, targets, and business needs. 

But, they can all benefit from hosting professional conferences, summits, and events that draw participants together. These events can be internal; for peers within the industry, or external; where clients and other businesses are invited for a wide-scale event.

Depending on your specific aims, there are a selection of reasons why you might want to consider an internal or external professional conference, such as:

• Building brand visibility, reputation and awareness within the industry, or to promote yourself to prospective clients.

• Positioning your business as a thought leader amongst your peers.

• Creating and deepening relationships with industry peers, or existing and new clients.

• Teaching or learning about market insights or industry changes.

With all of this in mind, getting the right venue (and location) for your event has become increasingly important. But how do you choose the right place for your event?...

Choosing the best location for your professional conference

In order to make the most of the potential opportunities from a conference, you need to choose the right location and venue. Obviously, a venue needs to have the right technical services, floor space, and flexible Event Spaces to meet the demands of your event. 

But what about some wider considerations? The right location can help to support a professional or industry-specific conference beyond the abilities of a venue.

• Industry connections to the area: different areas of the UK have strong connections to various industries. Choosing one of these areas that match your professional service can lend credibility and authenticity to your conference. For example, the majority of accountancy firms are in the South East, while Sheffield has vast manufacturing connections.

• Historical links to an area: the UK has a long and storied history, and certain regions are historically known for different things. Stoke-on-Trent is the ceramics world capital, Manchester used to be known as Cottonopolis for its dominance in the cotton and textiles industry, and our very own Liverpool has a long history of maritime connections. Setting your professional conference into this backdrop can help your event to stand out and build on an existing legacy.

• A well-connected hub: the best locations are accessible and well-connected with the rest of the wider world. Event transport should always be a consideration, especially for in-person events. Look for areas with strong train, bus, and air links to maximise how many delegates can attend your conference.

• The reputation of an area: history and industry connections are one thing, but you should also think about the current reputation of an area. For example, Liverpool is pioneering life sciences research and medical specialisms, as well as sustainability in the events industry and beyond.

Interested in learning more? Check out our article on Choosing Event Venues: Why Location Matters even more insights…

Why choose ACC Liverpool for your professional services conference?

Are you looking to host a professional services conference or event in a hub of private sector activity and growth? 

Then Liverpool could be the perfect location…

Our credentials

With over 12,000 businesses calling the Liverpool City Region home, there’s a huge base of potential attendees to draw upon: 107,000 to be precise, with a further 6.2 million people within a one hour drive. This sector constitutes 14.4% of all jobs in the Liverpool City Region.

Liverpool is recognised as a financial sector of excellence, and a number of sector concentrations exist here. Liverpool's maritime sector is 4.5 times more concentrated than the national average, and we are also home to the largest wealth management sector outside the South.

Many of the UK’s leading professional services firms maintain considerable bases in the region, including: 

• KPMG.

• DLA Piper.

• Barclays Wealth

• Rathbones

• RSM.

• Morecrofts.

• Hill Dickinson.

• Weightmans LLP.

Beyond these names, you’ll also find leading financial firms such as Deutsche Bank, as well as industry-leading eCommerce firms such as Shop Direct and TJ Morris. 

Liverpool is also strategically connected with Europe’s other major business hubs, so if you’re looking to attract international attendees to your professional services conference they can easily reach ACC Liverpool by land, sea or air. 

How to take advantage of this

When you choose ACC Liverpool to host your professional conference, we can connect you to a wide range of specialist support programmes; including our city region’s Inward Investment Service and Professional & Business Services Board. These programmes recognise the ambition and opportunities within this sector, and can leverage their network of valuable business connections, locally and globally to assist you.

As you can see from what we’ve already discussed, there’s a constellation of organisations and institutions to tap into, and plenty of ways to create a fantastic legacy for your conference. 

Having these relevant industry assets nearby will help you to broaden the scope of your event to include site visits, tours, meetings with local experts and even social events to help build inter-UK or even inter-continental networks. All of which can be supported by exceptional conferences, talks, and seminars held within our venue to ensure delegates get the best experience possible.

Contact ACC Liverpool today for your next professional conference

To find out more about organising your professional services conference at ACC Liverpool, you can find plenty of information about Why You Should Choose Us on our site. Or, you can also get in touch with the ACC Liverpool team to find the answers you need.

What are you waiting for? Contact us today.

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