A well-organised conference is the perfect way to draw attention to the exciting developments in your industry or academic field, and to put your research and colleagues on a world stage.

The VisitBrighton Ambassador Programme was launched to offer the partnership and support to encourage and inspire local academic, medical and other professionals to bid for national and international conferences to come to Brighton. Research has shown that over 75% of international conferences are brought to a city as a direct result of the role played by a key local contact or ‘Ambassador’, either to suggest venues, or indeed to form a local organising committee in support of the conference organisers.

VisitBrighton provides free and comprehensive support in all aspects of bidding for a conference, from sourcing venues, preparing bid documents, suggesting social programmes and hosting site inspections to booking hotel accommodation. By working together, we can deliver a strong bid and we will support you every step of the way.

Why become a VisitBrighton Ambassador?

VisitBrighton Ambassadors are professionals in their field who want to bring their colleagues and peers to meet in their own city to showcase their work and organisation. By becoming a VisitBrighton Ambassador, you can be part of our growing network and holding an event in the city can be incredibly rewarding, both personally and professionally.

Benefits to you and your organisation:

• Raise your professional reputation nationally and internationally
• Position yourself and your institution as leaders in your discipline 
• Showcase and promote your research/work amongst your peers in your industry
• Stimulate funding and investment opportunities
• Establish global links for research projects and international collaboration
• Shape conference programme content
• Generate economic benefit to Brighton & Hove

How VisitBrighton can help:
VisitBrighton offer free and unbiased support to any local Ambassadors looking to bring an event to Brighton, from bid stage through to the conference taking place in the city. The aim is to save you time and money.

At the initial stages we can help you by:

• Researching the viability of the conference coming to Brighton
• Sourcing the right venue for you – we can obtain rates and availability and provide unbiased advice
• Working in partnership with you to prepare a tailored and comprehensive bid document
• Co-ordinating and hosting a site inspection to showcase Brighton and its venues
• Proposing social programme ideas
• Offering assistance and help in drafting your conference budget at the early stages

Once the bid has been won, we can continue you to support you by:

• Offering a free delegate accommodation booking service - we will block-book hotel rooms and manage the accommodation requirements of your delegates at the best rates.
• Offering access to our vast photo library to support your marketing of the conference
• Creating a memorable social programme (for example, conference dinner, drinks receptions, excursions)
• Assistance with arranging civic support – if you want the Mayor to officially open your conference or attend one of your events
• Providing city Information and discounts – we can provide city maps for your delegate packs
• Delegate Deals Cards – we can provide you with a card that offers discounts in local shops, restaurants and attractions for all of your conference delegates.
• Providing introductions to local providers of support services (for example, poster boards, exhibition services, AV companies, transport)
• Offering general advice – we will give you as much help and advice along the way as we can

Ongoing support and keeping in touch:

We organise several Ambassador events throughout the year which are always a fantastic opportunity to network with other like-minded locally based Ambassadors. The dedicated support that VisitBrighton offer is completely free of charge. Our role is to drive economic benefit to our city so our mutual goal is to win the bid for your conference to come to Brighton.

If you are interested in becoming an Ambassador or would like to know more about how we can help you bid for a conference to come to Brighton, please contact Lucinda Jones on lucinda.jones@visitbrighton.com or 01273 292635.