I'm getting to travel quite a bit in the next few months, which is a nice change to sitting in the office in front of a PC all day.
On Monday I went up to Birmingham - second biggest city in Britain. It doesn't exactly have a reputation for being 'pretty' and isn't really a holiday destination. But it does attract a lot of business and
the ICC (part of the NEC group) is one of the busiest convention centres in the country. It's located right in the city centre which is quite unusual, just a 10 minute walk from New Street Station via Victoria Square. It surprisingly also has more miles of canals than Venice! And the canal flows right behind the ICC.
I really liked the venue. It offers a lot of flexibility and despite its size, everything is still close together - making it a comfortable experience for the delegates. On the ground floor there are a number of shops and restaurants. It has a number of hotels around it, too, which means that you don't need any public transport at all once you've arrived in the city. Birmingham airport is also just a short train ride away and offers a large number of international flights as well as regular budget airline connections. My train from London only took less than 1.5 hours. Not as far as I thought!
And most impressively: twinned with Frankfurt (where I was born), they've been hosting the Frankfurt Christmas Market for the last 12 years! Apparently the largest German Christmas Market outside Germany! It's a disgrace really that I've never been!
Some impressions:
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| Baskerville House |
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| The new library - with some building work outside |
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| Hall of Memory - a war memorial in Centenary Square |
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| Symphone Hall/ICC |
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| Town Hall |
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| Council House |
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