After looking at a number of threads around this forum, there has been alot of discussion about makor events that cities can host and that can bring huge benefits to cities images and also bring huge financial incentives. my question to you though is what do u feel birmingham shoudl bid for? which is the most realistic and which would bring the greatest benefits????

here are a few world wide events that we could try and get

* Olympics (tried once before and now with london maybe wont happen for a long time yet)
* Commonwealth games (had great benefits to Manchester)
* EXBO (huge developments and over history have resulted in the contruction of the eiffel tower, the crystal palace and the seattle space needle)

and to recam, the biggest events we have hosted in the last ten years which apear to have given us huge publicity
* G8 Summit (Bill Clinton eaching chips at the malthouse pub)
* The World indoor championships (the nia)
* Eurovision (you may laugh but most my european friends first heard of birmingham through this.....esp when the transvestite won)


so, let discussion commence?

An Expo - it could be held in a place that needs redeveloping (Eastside for example) and leave us with a permanent structure (the space needle in Seattle is ace) and give Birmingham, the Midlands and Britain good exposure.

That's for starters! I wouldn't say we should go for an Olympics or Commonwealth Games because of London & Manchester hosting. But bidding for sports events generally would be good (but we need a new stadium!)

Lets not forget Birmingham will also host The European INdoors again in 2007 for the 2nd time.

Other small things

Carter and fellow Baptists in Brum Jul 25 2005







Thousands of Baptists from across the world, including former US president Jimmy Carter and the wife of Brazilian football legend Pele, will arrive in Birmingham this week for the largest international Christian conference in the country for decades.

An estimated 13,000 delegates from up to 211 unions and conventions around the globe are expected in the city from Wednesday to celebrate the Baptist World Alliance's centenary.

The organisation was founded in London in 1905.

David Coffey, the general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Moderator of the Free Churches, is also the sole nominee for the role of alliance president.

Mr Coffey said it was an "enormous privilege" to host the event.

The five-day conference, which is being held at a number of venues, including the International Convention Centre and National Indoor Arena, takes place every five years. Former Georgia governor Mr Carter, 80, was noted for his devotion to the Baptist faith during his time in the White House as the 39th US president.

He was scheduled to take a Bible and Sunday school class at the conference.

Mr Carter has for many years been a bible study leader - known as Sunday School in America - at Marantha Baptist Church in his home town of Plains, Georgia.

He told The Baptist Times earlier this year: "I have a weekly commitment to my own home church to teach the Bible and the Baptist World Congress will give me a very good expanded forum to pursue that same goal."

Pele's wife Assiria, whom he married in 1994, is a Christian music artist in Brazil.

She will be performing on the Festival of Nations stage outside the ICC on Thursday.

PLUS Brum really needs to promote itself as a science, industry and technology city.

Something like an Expo would enable us to display the region (I know it is Coalbrookdale really, but we are close-by) as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and show we are front-runners in many fields. It would attract so much foreign investment and the idea of the A38 Technology Corridor would really catch on. It is about bloody time we started making the kind of discoveries and inventions that we used to - discovering oxygen, inventing celluloid, smelting iron etc.

An Expo combined with Artsfest would be excellent, and the city would be alive as it should be. Science & technology balanced with art & culture. Chuck in a bit of sport and political innovation (elected mayor anyone?) and BANG - a world city.

:)

Expo would be a great idea and the NEC site would be ideal, it would create new pavillions, giving the NEC a massive boost in size and worldwide reputation. also a rapid transport scheme to the city centre coud be built and included in the funding

I wander why the city has never tried to mount one ? I know it would need major government backing.

I went to Expo in Lisbon and I have to say the NEC just isnt the right venue for an attraction like that - Maybe Eastside in the future could host an event like it however.

i recon the nechells green area of the city would be amazing.

* close to the city centre
* on the outter ring-road & aston expressway(good road connections)
* Redevlop duddestone station (?) (northern links) and also possible adition of station on wesy coast mainline (london)
* Shuttle trains from location to both city centre and airport (posibel maglev)
* redevlop a realy rundown area odf the city

any thoughts?

The city where I live at the moment (Seville) has had two Expos ;one in 1929 (shared with Barcelona) and the other in 1992 (of course the same year as Barcelona had the Olympics).Both left a wonderful legacy of buildings and infrastructure.The event can't be underestimated.Something not too far from the centre would be ideal;as mentioned,somewhere in the Eastside area.A huge swathe of land is needed.

maybe a computer games led expo like the one in LA

Not enough exposure I don't think. And I can't see how a video or computer game game expo can redevelop swaths of the city.

.....lol u've obviously never seen the things behind hosting an expo!

To be honest I don't know much about what's involved in hosting an expo.
I know they attract leading developers/artists in whichever field the event is demonstrating and they require a new, large site for displays and exhibitions. But what are the crucial differences between an expo and a large exhibition (something like the motor show, which would take up all the halls of the NEC)?

From my own experience and friends who have worked on them (Seville92 Lisbon98) the main difference is scale;in terms of space and time.The Seville Expo lasted for six months and huge money was poured into the city ;the best example was the high speed train (AVE ,cutting the average time from Seville to Madrid from 7 hours to 2.5 hours and in the process ending up with a brand new station ,one of the best in Europe.After the Expo,the site was converted into a technology park with all types of offices using the different pavillions.It has been a remarkable success story catapulting a rather sluggish Seville into the 21st century.

Here are some of the buildings.
http://protos.dis.ulpgc.es/~gustavo/viajes/fotogif/epo92/expo92b.htm

Ah, okay, so it's not a big exhibition its a huge one. I always thought expos lasted two weeks to a month, but six months is very considerable.
Given Birmingham's history in science & technology, an expo is something we are well suited to and would stand a good chance of winning. Sounds like a good idea to me.
But I'd still like to see cars racing through the tunnel under the Bullring :carrot: ...

i'm still plumping for super prix