East vs West London has long been a discussion point in events. Historically it's always been the West that has been the preferred location for events out of the two but since the continued development of ExCeL, the Olympic Games and the expected closure of Earls Court (part of anyway) the East of London is fast becoming the favoured location for major events.
In recent weeks events such as BETT and Confex have moved from a flagship West London venue (Earls Court) to East London (ExCeL). When announcing the moves both stated lack of space at Earls Court as (one of) the reason and whilst I am sure this is partly true I can't help but feel that the lack of development in the West of London is also a reason.
A negative atmosphere is surrounding West London, chief reasons being that Earls Court is rumoured to be shutting post London 2012 and the Olympia Tube line is being closed from December 2011 (which negates any positive vibes from the development of Olympia). Without suggesting a conspiracy it almost seems as though the powers that be in London are happy to let West London look after itself whilst they focus all their attention and money on East London.
This may of course make complete sense from an economic and social point of view given how far behind the Eastern part of the City is in comparison to Western parts (compare Leyton and Chelsea for example) but from an event organiser point of view it is less than ideal, as it gives huge power to ExCeL in terms of competing for the larger events. However despite the above and current power shift from West to East there is still only one winner in terms of a location (in my opinion).
Yes East London is having millions of pounds spent on it's transport, general infrastructure, accommodation, social regeneration (largely all down to the Olympics) but for events, especially business to business ones, it's just not an attractive location. Let's focus on the largest venue - ExCeL. As a venue it can cater for events of pretty much any size, offers completely flexible space and has recently added to it's strength by opening the first ICC in London.
The problem is the venue just feels like it is a long way from central London, despite both the venue and Boris' claims it is not. Admittedly it has parking for something like 3,700 cars but when you advertise an event as being in London you want it to be easily accessible by public transport and I do not think ExCeL is. To access ExCeL you need to travel on both the unreliable Jubilee Line as well as the DLR - not quite as simple as just jumping on either the District or Picadilly Line to Earls Court (I accept Olympia is not easy to get to even with the station still open). To get from Victoria (my usual London station) to Stratford (the East London hub) takes 30minutes - compared to just 10minutes to Earls Court. To get to ExCeL takes 33minutes - 2/3rds as long.
London 2012 will be fantastic for the City and economy. I'm convinced that by the end of 2012 transport links to East London (and ExCeL), aided by the O2 cable car, will be on par with those out to the Western parts of the City. Added to that I am in complete agreement that those areas within the City that are more deprived receive the bulk of investment. However I just hope that the improvement of East London does not come at the detriment to historically strong West London venues such as EC&O resulting in organisers being forced to run events in locations we'd rather avoid.
www.connectevents.co.uk
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