Events centre unveils £150m plans

One of the UK’s largest events hubs has revealed plans for a £150 million expansion.

The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow already holds the SEC Centre, the SEC Armadillo and The SSE Hydro – major purpose-built spaces for exhibitions, conferences and live entertainment.

Bosses say they now want to add a new conference centre and extend the exhibition space, warning that “standing still is not an option” in the competitive conference market.

They say they have applied for planning permission in principle and are in funding talks

“There’s an opportunity to do something world class”

with the city council and Scottish and UK governments over the proposal.

SEC chief executive Peter Duthie said: “We believe there’s an opportunity to do something world class with the venue, to be ambitious and to capitalise on an industry that Scotland is already successful in.”

A feasibility study looking at the proposals has been carried out.

Mr Duthie added: “We’ll be looking to build an additional 5,000sqm of exhibition space, extending our exhibition halls and effectively build a new conference centre but connected into the existing facilities.

“One thing that will do is allow us to stage two events simultaneously of scale.

“At the moment, if we have a conference in for the week, pretty much that’s it. We believe the market is big enough that if we had the equivalent facility we could stage two at once and thereby significantly increase the economic benefit.”