With 14 events, ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 participants in 2007 and a turnover that has doubled in two years, the Lyon Convention Centre is reaping the fruit of three years’ works that have tripled its reception capacity by putting an extraordinary facility on the market: the 3,000-seat Amphitheatre.

The extension was achieved in a particularly favourable context at the Cité internationale, which was finished in 2006 and which considerably increased its accommodation capacity by opening two new establishments (the 4* Hotel Concorde and the Temporim apartment hotel).

The Cité internationale, in the midst of an environment of great natural beauty and built under the sign of sustainable development has become an exemplary quarter, where economy, culture and leisure activities mingle.

On this site where everything has been totally integrated, the Convention Centre has become a top-class event complex.

This highly positive impetus, reinforced by all the efforts made by the city, has brought Lyon to the forefront as a choice venue for events that, in the past, took place in other European capitals.

In figures l 2007 compared with 2006

·         Total business turnover for 2007: E 21 million l +42 % and + 105 % compared with 2005

·         Number of sqm rented: 2,600,000 sqm l + 644,739

·         Number of participants and visitors: 615,000 l +34 %

At the same time, the sales strategy succeeded in keeping up with these transformations and in creating a real balance between the corporate and the associative market by securing the customer portfolio and thereby guaranteeing regular activity from one year to the next.

The seasonal pricing policy has also contributed to this stabilization process, as 54% of all activity takes place over 4 months.

Product marketing, with tailor-made offers, together with the services offered by the GL events group, have also helped to consolidate this balance between the different markets.

Lastly, 2007 has been highly indicative of future perspectives by showing the Lyon Convention Centre’s capacity to manage complex events in an extremely competitive environment.

Lyon, the second placed city in France, enters the European top twenty and the World Top 30 of the international majors cities on the MICE market.

As a result of the latest UAI (Union of International Associations) report for 2006 (August 2007), Lyon is now the second placed city at national level, moving easily ahead of Strasbourg, its historical business tourism rival, for the first time ever.

The Lyon conurbation has simultaneously entered the circle of those rare second-placed cities that figure in the European top twenty, along with Munich and Barcelona and ahead of Edinburgh, Oslo and Turin, coming 19th.

The city enter the World Top 30 in front of Hong-Kong, Sydney, Chicago and Shanghai, with 42 major international events per year.

Lyon owes its 2006 performance, one of the most spectacular throughout the rankings, to its strong culture of “working together” of its different economic partners who develop the ONLYLYON marketing and communications strategy seeking to make the Lyon area into a European economic flagship.