Belfast & Northern Ireland Conference Support Scheme

Overview

Objectives of the scheme

The Belfast and Northern Ireland Conference Support Scheme is funded by Belfast City Council and Tourism Northern Ireland and administered by Visit Belfast. The scheme provides financial support for eligible associations and event organisers who will work in partnership with the destination to:

• Attract business events to Belfast and Northern Ireland to support tourism/events recovery and growth
• Maximise the contribution of business events to Belfast and Northern Ireland
• Enhance the profile of the region as a leading business and leisure destination
• Attract events that support the destinations research, education and economic development objectives
• Deliver safe, sustainable and high quality business events in the destination, creating an excellent experience for attendees and visitors

Financial Support

Financial support of £5,000 - £100,000 is available based on the number of eligible delegates in attendance.

• Associations and eligible event organisers can apply for £50 per out-of-state delegate to the destination that stays for a minimum of one night
• This funding will be provided for spend against the eligible costs below
• Organisers will be able to claim 75% of the funding award in advance of the event and 25% of the funding award following successful the post event evaluation

Conditions & Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for support, the following criteria applies:

• The applicant must demonstrate that it is a not-for-profit organisation
• The conference should attract a minimum of 100 out-of-state (OoS) event attendees to the destination for a minimum of one night. Out of state attendees are visitors who are not rom Northern Ireland. Day visitors and virtual attendees are not included
• The conference/business event must be based in Belfast and include use of overnight accommodation in the Greater Belfast area
• The conference must demonstrate that it would not come to Belfast unless support is provided
• The subject areas of the conference should support Belfast and Northern Ireland’s economic, tourism, social and cultural priorities
• An application for conference support cannot be considered without evidence of sound financial project management in the form of a detailed projected income/expenditure account for the proposed Belfast event
• At the time of submission support is not available if the conference is taking place/confirmed within the next 6 months
• Applications will be assessed against the Scheme criteria and only conferences deemed to most closely match the objectives of the Scheme will be considered for support.
• Applications should include all supporting documentation as detailed in the application form
• Financial support of £5,000 - £100,000 is available based on the number of eligible delegates in attendance
• The scheme funds £50 per out of state delegate that attends the conference. Any variances between forecast and actual delegate attendance will be reconciled after the event

In applying to the scheme, applicants must also agree to the following conditions:

• Organisers are required to provide final attendee lists to Visit Belfast and scheme funders as part of the post event evaluation. Attendee lists must include first name, last name, country of origin and email address. Organisers are responsible for having approbate permissions in place to provide attendee lists to the scheme
• As part of the agreement in accepting Conference Support, tourism researchers will be allowed to interview a sample of delegates on the day(s) of conference to allow them to assess economic value and contribution to tourism in Belfast and Northern Ireland and also provide feedback on tourism products and services. Researchers may also undertake random sampling on conferences delegate lists to confirm attendance of delegates
• If the conference does not take place for any reason then all funding is immediately repayable to the funders
• If the conference does not deliver the stated number of delegates, this will be reconciled post event and the post event claim (25%) will be amended to reflect the actual number of attendees if less than the award
• In the event of the organiser having claimed pre-event for more delegates than actually attended, funders reserve the right to claw back part of the funding. Funders will take into consideration all circumstances including those deemed outside of the control of the conference organisers
• The organiser must commit to promotion of business extenders/partner programmes OR demonstrate how they will encourage repeat leisure visitors to include other regions of Northern Ireland

Eligible Costs

The following costs will be deemed eligible for consideration for assistance:

• Venue costs (including AV, technical and hybrid costs but excluding any food and beverage costs)
• Exhibition marketing
• Pre-conference marketing costs
• Delegate transfer costs
• Speaker costs
• In addition to these any other item of expenditure deemed essential to help deliver the conference in Belfast will be considered on a case by case basis