With the generous support of The City of Edinburgh City Council, the main AuditoriumsMeet 2012 conference will be held in the newly-restored Assembly Rooms – a Category A listed building located in Edinburgh’s New Town, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.

The beautiful 18th Century A listed building is the most important building of its type surviving in the UK thanks to the quality of its architecture, function, history and the wide programme of diverse events held in it.

The Assembly Rooms were initially built in 1787 as a focal point for cultural, social and commercial life, a role which it continues to fulfil today. Reopening in Summer 2012, the Assembly Rooms have been returned to their original grandeur with a £9.3m refurbisment project – and enhanced with retail spaces and a restaurant on the ground floor. Over 200 years later, it still retains its function as a venue for society to gather.

The main conference programme for AuditoriumsMeet 2012 will run at the Assembly Rooms on 31 October and 1 November, with a series special networking events and receptions to be held before and after the conference at some of the city’s most stunning venues.

“We were delighted with the success of our first AuditoriumsMeet in Dublin,” said conference director Angelina Tennino, “And we are excited to be taking the Meet to Scotland in 2012, and specifically to Edinburgh – a city synonymous with live entertainment.

“We look forward to bringing together executives from the world’s leading concert halls, arenas, theatres, festivals and performance spaces in Scotland’s wonderful capital city from October 30 2012.”

The full conference programme for AuditoriumsMeet 2012 will be unveiled shortly.

SPECIAL EARLYBIRD OFFER – Book before midnight on Friday 1st June and receive two FREE hotel nights (inc. taxes/breakfast)  – saving you over £275 on the full price.

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Held in Dublin, Ireland, last November, AuditoriumsMeet 2011 brought together 150 executives from the global live entertainment venues, for two days of discussions, open debate, ‘behind the scenes’ expert tours and peer-to-peer networking.

Delegates included representatives from a range of new-build projects around the globe; each of whom left Dublin armed with the knowledge to improve their venue’s operations.

Trond Backer, Marketing Director at the new Kilden Performing Arts Centre showcased the landmark venue to delegates in Dublin as part of the ‘New Kids on the Block’ session. The new €140m Centre, in Kristiansand, Norway opened in January 2012, housing the Regional Theatre, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Opera Sør within a single site. And Trond was delighted to take part in AuditoriumsMeet 2011;

“I was honoured to be invited to speak at the event,” said Trond. “It was great to be able to meet some of my industry colleagues, to feel part of the big family, and reassuring to learn that we are not alone; in at Kilden we share many of the same challenges that other venues face.”

“And, of course, it is very inspiring to be able to learn ‘best practice’ from some of the finest venues in the industry.”

Meanwhile, for Aase Marit Fjellanger and May Britt Hagerup – Managing Director, and Head of Economy and Administration, respectively, at the new Stavanger Concert Hall - the value of AuditoriumsMeet 2011 lay in the opportunity to learn from the ‘real-world experiences’ recently opened venues. AM11’s ‘Opening Nights’ session showcased the lessons from the Grand Canal Theatre; The Curve, Leicester; and the Ricoh Arena and the extent to which economic realities match the planned business models.

“The whole programme was fantastic, but the Opening Nights session was perfect for us,” said Aase. “It was very interesting for us to learn from the mistakes and successes of the speakers, as we plan for the opening of our new concert hall.”

The new €258m Stavanger Concert Hall, in Stavanger, Norway opens in September 2012.

Elsewhere, Gillian Swanney, Project Manager, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group/Scottish Enterprise (the National Economic Development Support agency) attended AuditoriumsMeet 2011 alongside a high-level delegation from the best of Edinburgh’s venues.

“It was a fantastic programme. Our entire Edinburgh contingent was more than impressed, and came back home thoroughly inspired and motivated,” said Gillian. “For a long time Edinburgh has had an aspiration to develop a multi-use entertainment Venue so for us the conference is extremely relevant and will hopefully inform some key decisions going forward.”

Other new venue projects represented at the 2011 Meet included the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – the stunning new €400m project cultural landmark that will open on the harbour of the river Elbe, in Hamburg, Germany in 2012.

Chair of AuditoriumsMeet, Ian Nuttall was pleased with the success of the inaugural event. “We always try to ensure that our programmes cover the key issues and debates that will be of relevance to management teams from venues undergoing redevelopment or expansion, or new-build investment – and we’re very proud of our record of helping many new projects around the world to increase revenues, optimize costs and make better operational decisions.

“So I am obviously delighted that these projects found their attendance at AM11 useful. Of course, we thank each of these venues for joining us in Dublin, and wish them the best of luck with their respective openings.

“And we hope to welcome them, as well as a myriad of new projects from around the globe, to Edinburgh for AuditoriumsMeet 2012!”

Is your venue about to embark on renovation, refurbishment or new build investment? We’d love to hear from you! Our research team actively monitors new construction and refurbishment projects for concert halls, arenas, theatres and performance arts venues around the world – so if your venue is about to invest in a capital project, please get in touch…

After joining the 150+ industry leaders at the 2011 Meet TheAudienceBusiness’ Anne Bonnar wrote the following excellent summary of her key ‘take homes’ from her time in Dublin:

Transformations, amalgamations and a paradigm shift: It’s all about the experience.

The AuditoriumsMeet Conference in Dublin convened the leaders and designers of some of the world’s latest landmark performance auditoria. Some were brand new venues like the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin and the Curve in Leicester, both created during times of economic buoyancy and both of which have had to work hard to gain market position. And then there were the Scandinavians, dedicated to the pursuit of acoustic and environmental quality regardless, it seems, of cost or time, like the world’s most expensive concert hall, the Koncerthuset in Copenhagen and its Norwegian neighbour the Kilden Performing Arts Centre in Kristiansand.

But more of the venues were transformations. Like Cinderella’s glittering carriage magicked from a pumpkin, Dublin’s 02 is an astonishing reinvention of the 9000 seat concert venue which not only accommodates with style and comfort audiences and artists for the central performance but also pays as much attention to other parts of the experience. Mike Adamson O2’s CEO was obsessive about getting the right lighting to create ambience in the various zones of the O2, from the bars where pints can be pulled in 20 seconds, to the VIP Audi club. And Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, transformed from the Hummingbird Centre in the wake of an explosion of new venues, to become a multicultural arts centre with cup holders built into the seats. The overall experience is serviced through the $20 themed drink and dinner offer and a recognition that audiences will be live streaming, taking photos, checking into Foursquare and Facebook during the performance.

This attention to all parts of the customer experience in attending an event is critical to the success of performance auditoria in the 21st century… Article continues at theaudiencebusiness.org.uk>>

An official précis of the 2011 conference discussions will be published shortly.

SPECIAL EARLYBIRD OFFER – Book before midnight on Friday 1st June and receive two FREE hotel nights (inc. taxes/breakfast)  – saving you over £275 on the full price.

REGISTER NOW!

Representatives of the world’s leading concert halls, arenas, theatres, festivals and performance spaces met at the vibrant and chic Gibson Hotel for two days of discussions, open debate, ‘behind the scenes’ expert tours and peer-to-peer networking.

• What happened? See a slideshow of the event here

An international meeting, delegates flocked to Ireland from venues and venue businesses in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United States, as well as from the UK and Ireland.

• Who was there? Download the final attendee list here

Our international conference programme featured ideas, innovations and insights from leading venues around the globe, built around this year’s theme of ‘New Experiences, New Inspirations, New Destinations’.

• What was discussed? Download the programme and event guide here

The AuditoriumsMeet team extend special thanks to all the speakers, moderators and panellists that helped make the event a resounding success.

Thanks also to the teams at The O2 Dublin, The National Concert Hall, The Grand Canal Theatre and Wexford Opera House for generously opening their doors, and affording delegates an access-all-areas pass to view their venue’s operations… at times just 30 mins before performances started!

How was AuditoriumsMeet 2011 for you? Whether you joined us in Dublin or followed the discussion live on Twitter, we’d love to hear your thoughts on AuditoriumsMeet 2011!  To send your feedback on the event, please click here.

You’ll be able to follow the latest news, discussions, and debates – before, during and after AuditoriumsMeet 2012 – by tracking the hashtag #AudsMeet.

To join in the discussion yourself, simply add the hashtag #AudsMeet to your tweets!

Follow @AuditoriumsMeet on Twitter now at Twitter.com/AuditoriumsMeet!