Bumper Year Sees 50,000 Visit University Conference Sites in North Wales

Up to 50,000 people visited a North Wales university’s conference facilities within 12 months.

Wrexham Glyndŵr University enjoyed a bumper 2015, with more people than ever attending meetings, business and political forums and industry events.

The university’s OpTIC Centre in St Asaph welcomed more than 29,000 people during that period, while the main Wrexham campus – including the William Aston Hall, Oriel Sycharth Gallery and Catrin Finch Centre – hosted around 19,000.

Among the companies and organisations to regularly use the facilities, including the Northop site, are Kellogg’s, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wrexham FC, The Welsh Government and North Wales Credit Union.

Lynda Powell, Director of Operations, said: “The huge number of visitors we welcome year-in year-out is testament to the excellent facilities we have on offer and hard work and customer service of our staff.

“Wrexham, Northop and St Asaph all provide people with something different at key locations, which is a large reason for their success in attracting so many clients over the last 12 months.”

One of the biggest events to take place in the coming weeks at Wrexham is the thriving children and baby markets launched by local mum-of-three and entrepreneur, Heather Marsh.

They have proven to be very popular in the community, with the next will be held on Saturday (February 6) from 10am-2pm at the Catrin Finch Centre.

The business model has worked so well at Wrexham Glyndŵr that she has expanded the franchise to other venues in Chester and Ellesmere Port, as well as Northop, where the market is to be held in the sports hall.

She said: “I wanted to be able to offer parents a family-friendly environment where they could come regularly to sell their toys, equipment and clothes to other parents and for these mums and dads to come confident in the knowledge that they were getting top quality items at low prices. Lots of research later I decided that a franchise would be the best way forward.

“The Catrin Finch Centre is fantastic, we are regularly complimented on what a great choice we made in holding it there. It’s always clean and bright and just a nice place to be. The team are super-organised and everything is always as we asked for.”

St Asaph also has major events planned, including a space sector conference, Welsh Government workshops and trade forums, and Innovate UK is hosting a briefing for businesses interested in applying for part of a £500,000 cash pot set aside for innovative research and development projects centred on the emerging cluster of photonics, electro-optics, and opto-electronics businesses in North Wales.