Big talks are big business for city

They may not have the glitz and glamour of a sell-out stadium gig, but a string of events booked to take place in Edinburgh are worth £6.5 million to the Capital.

A total of 19 new conferences and business meetings were booked through the Edinburgh Convention Bureau in just one month, and they are set to bring cash pouring in.

The conferences, many of which are for scientific or business organisations, are worth a fortune in terms of hotel bookings, transport, entertainment and other spending.

The bureau says the reservations brought the value of conferences booked since April to 53.4m, and it is on track to hit its annual target of 75.7m.

Among the more unusual events booked to take place over the coming years are the World Potato Conference 2012, the Intercontinental Hair Research Meeting 2013, and next year the Federation of Harley-Davidson Clubs Europe, and the Japan Karate Shotorenmei World Championships.

Among those to have confirmed during November and early December is the 2014 conference for EMDR Europe, which specialises in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing - a therapy used to treat people with psychological trauma. The conference is expected to raise 1,2m for the Capital economy.

One of the most lucrative among the recent bookings will be the British Society of Echocardiography's conference next year, which will bring in more than 1.5m.

Bureau chief executive Sue Stuart said the city's reputation as a good conference venue was holding strong: "We're very pleased, it's very encouraging. It shows that the international conference market, which is the sector that we particularly concentrate on, is extremely resilient. It has withstood the economic problems, the ash cloud, and now the onset of severe weather conditions."

Ms Stuart said the city was proving attractive to those arranging scientific events. "We have done particularly well with conferences within the science side of things, and particularly life sciences.

"The fact that Edinburgh is such a centre of excellence in that subject area has attracted even more conferences under that heading."

Edinburgh is the most popular UK city after London for international association meetings - the bureau helped draw 257 conferences here during 2009/10. The total annual value of Edinburgh's business tourism is estimated at 300m.

Chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Ron Hewitt, said: "Conferences bring trade for the hospitality sector and also for retail, which is valuable in these difficult times."