Staff at Elland Road Stadium, Leeds United’s Conference & Events facility, are celebrating after achieving not one, but two meetings accolades recently.

Elland Road a partner of Conference Leeds the super convention bureau for Leeds and West Yorkshire, recently secured the prestigious AIM entry level accreditation and also won the Director’s Choice Dining Room Award, League 1, presented recently at the official Football Hospitality Awards 2008.

To achieve the accreditation granted by the Meetings Industry Association, Leeds United had to meet a range of criteria ranging from health and safety and trade descriptions through to facilities offered, transparency and security, is a viewed as a great accolade for the club’s ever expanding Conference & Events business.

Leeds United Sales Manager Helen Briden said: "As Leeds United's Elland Road Stadium is one of the country's leading venues; our partnership with MIA and our AIM accreditation creates the perfect networking forum to benchmark ourselves in this ever changing industry.”

“We are confident our association will ensure we offer an ongoing high degree of excellence to our clients with Best Business Practice our continued goal.”

Nicola Lockwood, Head of Conference Leeds added:

“we are delighted that Elland Road have been acknowledged in this way. We know that good quality customer service is at the heart of all our venues here in Leeds and this accreditation recognises that.

We are confident that these accolades will encourage new businesses to hold their events in the area; the assurance that Conference Leeds can help plan their event every step of the way and that venues have been recognised for their service standards will give peace of mind to organisers.”

Conference Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.


ENDS


EDITORS NOTES:
Nicola Lockwood is available for interview on 0113 220 6356,
email: nicola.lockwood@conference-leeds.com or alternatively contact:
Helen Briden Sales Manager Leeds United on 0113 367 6132

About Conference Leeds

Conference Leeds is the organisation responsible for promoting meetings and events across Leeds and West Yorkshire. The recently restructured Conference Leeds is now a “super convention bureau” representing almost 250 venues across the area, responsible for marketing the West Yorkshire districts of Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale.

Conference Leeds is a Leeds City Council organisation with funding from Yorkshire Forward, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale Councils.

Conference Leeds can offer a free venue finding service for anyone wanting to host an event in Leeds and West Yorkshire and markets the area through a series of initiatives.
Business tourism is worth over £450million a year in direct expenditure to the Yorkshire economy

About Elland Road
The Conference & Exhibition Centre at Elland Road is one of the largest in the north of England, and there are over 40 rooms available for hire at the stadium of differing sizes, catering to all requirements and budgets

Yorkshire Forward
Conference Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Forward. Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber, it exists to represent and help generate sustainable business for the region’s tourism industry, an industry worth £4.1billion to the region annually and employing over 165,000 people, making it one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the region. Yorkshire’s goal, as identified in Bold Vision, Bright Future - The Tourism Marketing Strategy for Yorkshire and Humber 2006 - 2010, is to achieve and increase in the value of tourism earnings to the region by 5% per annum to £5.9bn by 2010.