The inaugural UKREiiF event held in May delivered £5.5m of economic benefit according to a report populated by ARUP – one of the events partners.
UKREiiF, a major three day event focused on real estate, property, infrastructure and investment, brought together over 4,000 event delegates, with another thousand attendees across the wider city attending fringe activity and events associated to the main UKREiiF forum.
The event attracted cities and regions from across the UK including London, Cornwall, Belfast, Fife and Cambridge, with 86% of attendees travelling to the event from outside of Yorkshire – maybe choosing sustainable options including the LNER service who were the events sustainable travel partner, in addition to others biking to the event through the Club Peloton charity bike ride.
UKREiiF enabled the facilitation between UK Government and local authorities, directly to investors, funders, developers, housebuilders and end-users who are keen to deploy transformational and inclusive investment funds to opportunities in a multitude of sectors.
The £5.5m doesn’t take into consideration any of the deals and transactions which will take place following the event – where over £100bn of investable opportunities were showcased – meaning the economic impact will be even higher.
Hotel occupancy in the city of Leeds was as high as 95% with international investors travelling into the UK to do business, whilst more than 50 fringe events across the city saw a huge uplift in hospitality spend in the F&B arena.
The benefits extended to many other businesses in the Yorkshire region – with local suppliers being utilised, over 100 staff on site in addition to the growth of event organiser Built Environment Networking who now employ almost fifty full-time members of staff.
Built Environment Networking will also be sharing details of the Social Value generated from the event in the coming months – as they work with Loop to analysis the wider benefits to the community not just the economic impact.
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