Manchester Visit During #OurUCLan

In Our UCLan Week, 2^nd Year Event and Hospitality students visited The Lowry and Emirates Old Trafford, Lancashire County Cricket Club in Manchester as part of their International Corporate Hospitality and Business Events module. 

UCLan Events Graduate Lauren Fitzpatrick, who is The Lowry’s Conference Sales Coordinator, and Claire Leonard, the Business Development Manager welcomed the group and gave an interesting overview of the history of the building and its strategy for engaging with the community.  This was followed by a tour of some of the event spaces, including the Compass Room with its spectacular view over Manchester which certainly has the ‘wow factor’.  Lauren and Claire also shared some anecdotes about various events and the logistics of organising events in a working theatre and art gallery.

After lunch, the group moved on to Lancashire County Cricket Club which is an award winning conference and events venue.  They enjoyed a tour taking in the £12million purpose-built ‘The Point’ conference, events and hospitality facility, the Pavilion, the tunnel, and the pitch.  This was accompanied by a very interesting presentation from LCCC representative Dave Halliday who told us a little about the history of the club and about some of the events that had been held there in addition to cricket, including Take That and Foo Fighters concerts, weddings and corporate events for high profile companies such as Disney.

Events Course Leader, Rod Train, said:  ‘It is always nice to see our graduates being successful in their jobs and seeing Lauren’s success at The Lowry was a good example of what can be achieved with a degree in Event Management.  The visits gave students the opportunity to experience two contrasting venues and to hear first-hand from industry professionals about the challenges they face on a day to day basis.’