It is great to see so many people descend on Leeds once again for the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum. This year is the fourth year of this well-established Leeds event, and is becoming a time in the calendar when people say “we can meet up when I’m in Leeds at REiiF.”
Many of us will have been to conferences and conventions across the globe and it can feel like you have not stepped out the auditorium, seen daylight or enjoyed the city where the event is taking place. You glance through the plane or train window on your way home looking at what you should have experienced. With UKREIIF it’s an event which encompasses the whole city and people are meeting everywhere as well as in the main areas of display around the Royal Armouries Museum. Having an immersive city experience with sunshine (thankfully) and fresh air creates a different type of event. A Place First event!
I recall going to New York for an event in 2013 and delegates were greeted by the 108th Mayor of New York who asked visitors to be ‘fully immersed in the city and not to stay in your hotel lobbies’. Convention goers were given a free metro card to get around and pre loaded debit card to spend on food to get out there and experience the taste of the Big Apple. Conferences which have a place first focus, give those who visit a more memorable experience which in this case I’m still taking about over a decade later.
As people experience Leeds in an immersive way this week and witness the transformation of the city which is taking place, and as they return year after year for UKREiiF, it will become an established point in time when business leaders, politicians and specialists from numerous sectors get together, to exchange ideas, share plans and visions, do business while also having a good time in this great city. I am not sure why I would want to sign up for the alternative conference experience, a box with no day light, confined to a single location, when the city takeover style event is far more immersive, memorable and fun.
Welcome to Leeds.
