With a population of more than five million – similar to the whole of Denmark or Scotland – it stands to reason the city of Leeds attracts so many businesses to its trendy, cosmopolitan streets. Naturally, being such a business-orientated city, Leeds caters for organisations of all shapes, sizes and industries. If you’re holding a meeting in Leeds and you’re looking for a suitable venue, the good news is, being such a vibrant, corporate-centred city, Leeds is awash with quality, well-facilitated and flexible spaces to hold meetings, events, seminars and to even work from.
If you are a business thinking about settling or holding a meeting or event in Leeds, you may be interested in reading the following ten things you should know about meeting rooms and businesses in general in Leeds.
- Leeds is the UK’s largest centre for business and financial service outside London
You can forget the likes of Manchester, Liverpool or even Birmingham, as, according to Leeds City Guide, it’s Leeds which is Britain’s largest centre for business and financial services outside the capital. Part of the city’s comprehensive, quality and all-inclusive business services includes the many flexible meeting rooms available to hire in Leeds, designed to help businesses develop.
- Low unemployment
With a workforce of approximately 1.9 million, a business base of more than 106,000 organisations and in recent years being consistently ranked within the UK’s top five cities for low unemployment, Leeds boasts a healthy employment scene. In fact according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this year, the rate of the number of people unemployed in Yorkshire as a whole during October to December 2014 fell by 15.0% to 6.1%. Employment rose to almost 31 million, which is the highest since records began.
Naturally, Leeds’ thriving and quality meeting rooms and office space continue to play a pivotal role in interviewing candidates, holding training and being places to work in the city’s buoyant employment community.
- Value for money office space
Now here’s an interesting fact. In 2008 and 2009, Leeds was voted the city for value for money office space in the whole of Europe. And might we add, value for money office space typically equates to value for money meeting rooms!
- HSBC choose its offices in Leeds to launch the UK’s first ever telephone banking system
We might take telephone banking for granted now but did you know that HSBC decided its offices in Leeds would be the venue to launch Britain’s first ever telephone banking system? Though when you consider that around 30 national and international banks have offices based in Leeds, it’s hardly surprising that the world’s largest bank chose our own ‘Northern powerhouse’ to launch such an important innovation.
- Marks & Spencer humble beginnings were in Leeds
Testament that the world’s biggest brands can begin and grow in Leeds is the fact that the much-loved British retail brand Marks and Spencer started in Leeds. In 1882, Michael Marks, a Belarusian Jew immigrated to the UK and settled in Leeds due to the fact there was a company based in the city which was well-known as giving work to Jewish refugees. However, the entrepreneurial Michael Marks soon set up his own stall in Kirkgate Market which soon became thriving, operating under the enticing slogan, “Don’t ask the prices, it’s a penny!”
Two years later, Marks invited cashier Thomas Spencer to partner up with him – the rest of course is history!
- Leeds has a great network of transport to reach meeting rooms and office space
With extensive roads, rail and bus networks, Leeds has a great network of transport that makes travelling easy both within the city and to other major UK towns and cities. As well as Leeds Railway Station being one of the busiest in Britain, the city is connected to Britain’s national road network via the M62, M1 and A1 (M) motorways. And with Leeds Bradford International Airport being located on the outskirts of the city, international travel in and out of Leeds is also ultra-convenient.
In terms of holding meetings, this comprehensive and quality transport network makes Leeds extremely attractive.
Take Carrwood Park as an example. Being a stone’s throw from the M1, M62 and the city centre, our premium meeting rooms in Leeds are easy to locate and ultra-convenient for colleagues, clients and delegates travelling from across Britain and, being within close proximity to Leeds Bradford International Airport, even further afield.
- Leeds meeting room and office space scene just keeps growing
Yet further testament to Leeds flourishing business landscape is the fact that more and more office and meeting room space keeps popping up throughout the city. For example, earlier this year the green light was given for developers to build a new eight-storey office block in Leeds city centre on a site that was the home of Whitehall Soap Works until the 1980s.
- The rise of the flexible workspace in Leeds
Being such an on-trend and pioneering city, Leeds’ office and meeting room scene recognises and consequently caters for the increasing demand for more flexible workspaces in which businesses, freelancers, start-ups and SMEs, can come and go at their leisure. As a result, many meeting room and workspace venues in Leeds cater for the city’s forward-thinking companies by putting communication, collaboration and flexibility at their core.
- Meeting rooms to cater for every type of meeting and size
Being such business-minded and entrepreneurial city, Leeds recognises that meetings come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. Whether you are looking for a meeting room to host a smaller meeting, need a spacious boardroom with the latest facilities to host a knock-out presentation, or a conferencing suite to entertain a much larger group of delegates, meeting and conference centres in Leeds, such as Carrwood Park, will have the type of meeting room to satisfy your business needs.
- Meeting rooms with car parking
If you’re organising a meeting in Leeds that you’ll want to cater for every potential situation, including attendees travelling to the meeting via car and requiring somewhere to park. You’ll be pleased to learn that there are meeting room venues in Leeds that have their own car parking facilities, such as Carrwood Park on the outskirts of Leeds.
For more fascinating advice, tips and facts about meeting rooms and office space in Leeds, subscribe to Carrwood Park’s regularly updated blog.
