Belfast Waterfront exhibition and conference centre

The Belfast Waterfront exhibition and conference centre is an extension to the city’s existing Waterfront Hall, an entertainment venue that has been used for musical events, small functions and meetings for the past 25 years.

The new centre stands as Northern Ireland’s only purpose-built conference centre and boasts 7,000m^² of event space, allowing it to cater for over 5,000 delegates.

The centre itself comprises: a 2,000-seat auditorium; two interconnecting multi-purpose halls spanning over 2,500m^²; a 380-seat studio; 17 meeting rooms able to accommodate between 10 and 200 delegates; a gallery and bar areas; two exterior terraces with riverside views; and a new dedicated riverside entrance leading to a 660m^² reception area.

Our role

Currie & Brown was appointed to provide project management services. Our initial task was to monitor the progress of the pre-construction schedule, which was drawn up to make sure strict programme dates were achieved. We were also responsible for ensuring that everything was in place to allow construction to commence on its scheduled date.

Our team worked closely with the client body to ensure that strict co-ordination with funders’ requirements was achieved. The team also worked with the main contractor to follow the protocols in relation to the expenditure of provisional sums for specialist works, to ensure that funders’ requirements were met, and that competitiveness and accountability were achieved.