Press Release Details

Tenth major award for ExCeL London since ADNEC took ownership

Publication Date: 8 Nov 2009

The London venue also won the Best Corporate Event of the Year for its highly successful staging of the G20 London Summit, where leaders of the twenty most powerful nations on Earth came together to discuss the global economic crisis.  ExCeL London also won the Silver Award in the sustainable tourism strategy.   These awards mean that in the 18 months that ExCeL London has been under the ownership of ADNEC, it has won a remarkable ten major industry awards.

The awards are being seen as a clear sign that Abu Dhabi’s investment in the London venue has transformed it into one of the global events industry’s success stories.  Since acquiring ExCeL London in May 2008, ADNEC has invested AED973 million to double the size of the centre to almost 100,000sqm of event space, it has enabled the venue to create a purpose built convention centre (ICC London ExCeL) and is investing in related hospitality projects on the ExCeL London campus. 

His Excellency Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri, Managing Director of ADNEC and Board Member of ExCeL London said, “ADNEC’s strategy under the direction and follow up of His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of ADNEC and the Board of Directors is to assist the government’s 2030 Vision by establishing a global network of world class exhibition venues which will raise Abu Dhabi’s profile internationally and enable commercial links to be created or expanded in countries that are of strategic importance to Abu Dhabi and the UAE.  Central to this strategy is to position ExCeL as the number one exhibition, conference and live events venue in the UK and one of the most important in Europe.  These awards, combined with the many others which ExCeL has won in recent months, clearly show that this strategy is beginning paying dividends.”

Simon Horgan, ADNEC Group CEO said, “The last twelve months have been a testing time for the global exhibition industry, we have seen a number of venues come under intense pressure from an international downturn in business.  During this time period two major international venues stand out as a beacon, these are ADNEC and ExCeL London.  Our two venues have out-performed the market and have significantly expanded their facilities, thus increasing their leverage in the industry.  I am delighted that ExCeL London has been recognised for its immense achievements of the last 12 months and I look forward to building on this success and firmly establishing ExCeL London as the number one venue in the UK.”

Kevin Murphy, ExCeL London CEO said, “We were delighted to have such a successful night at the prestigious Visit London Awards.  Winning Best Business Venue for the second year in a row is a huge compliment to the team and their passion and dedication.  We were extremely proud to also win Best Corporate Event for the G20 Summit.  The Summit was an historical global event for London and a showcase for the venue and events industry.  With the London 2012 Olympic Games in three years time, all the eyes of the world will be firmly focused on London, and as the largest Olympic venue in terms of events, we will continue to work with our owners, ADNEC, to invest in our facilities and ensure that we continue to deliver successful events.  The investment and support from ADNEC has enabled us to build the much needed ICC for London and together, our long term vision will allow ExCeL to build on its international reputation and infrastructure as one of the best venues in the world.”

ADNEC acquired ExCeL London in May 2008 as the first stage of the global expansion strategy to offer international exhibitions, conference and live event organisers a world class network of venues.  ADNEC will complete Phase 2 of ExCeL London in spring 2010; the expansion will see the venue double in size to become one of Europe’s largest exhibition centres.  ExCeL London provides a number of synergies with ADNEC, including benefits from shared experiences of hosting DSEi and IDEX, secondment opportunities of UAE nationals in London to gain international management experience, promotion of ADNEC and Abu Dhabi as an overseas venue at major conferences and events and access to a number of new organisers as clients for ADNEC.

ExCeL London's ten major awards under the ownership of ADNEC include:

  1. Visit London Awards 2009: Corporate Event of the Year for the G20 Summit
  2. Visit London Awards 2009: Business Venue of the Year
  3. Visit London Awards 2009: Sustainable Tourism Award – Silver
  4. Exhibition News Awards 2009: The Green Award
  5. Exhibition News Awards 2009: Best Venue Support
  6. AEO (Association of Event Venues) Awards 2009: Venue of the Year
  7. C&IT Reader Awards 2009: Best European Conference Centre 
  8. Visit London Awards 2008: Business Venue of the Year
  9. Eventia Awards 2008: Best Event Celebrating CSR
  10. Eventia Awards 2008: Best Venue (over 500 delegates)

For further information:

Ben Collins
Marketing & PR Manager
Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC)
Tel: 971 (0) 2 406 3238
Email: ben.collins@adnec.ae