ABSOLUTELY ABERDEEN

November 2006, Volume I, Issue II

News from Aberdeen, Scotland

Welcome to the second issue of Absolutely Aberdeen, your complete guide to meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland, including all of the great things to do in Aberdeen and the surrounding Scottish countryside. Absolutely Aberdeen is brought to you by the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre (AECC).

As we head into winter, AECC has much to celebrate! Adding to the excitement and success of the past several meetings held at the center, are the awards and recognitions AECC has received for outstanding meeting facilities!

AECC’s Catering Department received the highest score out of all of the competing conference centers in their category for the 2006 International Association of Congress Centres (AIPC) Apex Award for ‘Worlds Best Congress Centre’. The award is based entirely on customer satisfaction and 2006 marked the third year the AECC has qualified and the first year they’ve received the highest score in any category.

The center, committed to being a green friendly facility, has also been recognized by the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) with Silver Status for environmental awareness following a visit by the acclaimed organization. The AECC was given the second highest accolade by the GTBS in recognition of their environmental efforts and impressive feedback from the GTBS.

In this issue, we’ll profile All Energy ’06, an exciting conference at AECC; highlight a selection of special event venues unique to Aberdeen; and tell you about AECC’s superb meeting facilities. We’ll also let you know where you can find us next, who’s meeting at AECC, and a few fun facts about Aberdeen and Scottish tradition.

We hope that you enjoy reading this newsletter and find it both inspiring and helpful in planning your next European meeting. Aberdeen is a thriving European capital for international business. With the AECC’s recent multi-million renovation, the Convention Center offers a state-of-the-art meeting space for events of all sizes.

As AECC continues to be recognized for their service and facilities, it’s no wonder more groups are choosing Aberdeen and the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre for their next meeting.

To find out more about bringing your meeting to Aberdeen, contact us at 1-617-536-0590 or at info@openthedoor.biz.

·  Event Profile: All Energy '06

·  Transportation: Easy to Get Around the Area

Getting into Aberdeen is a breeze and once in the city, getting around is just as easy!

Located just 6 miles from the AECC, the Aberdeen International Airport offers non-stop service from several European cities as well as from several US destinations. American visitors have a number of options for arriving in Aberdeen. There are direct flights from Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Newark, and Philadelphia via Edinburgh and Glasgow and there are several non-stop flights a day from London’s Heathrow Airport, Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, and Manchester, England.

Once in Aberdeen, delegates will find that the city has an outstanding modern and extensive bus system including a Park and Ride service (one of which is based on site at the AECC), offering regular transportation to and from the city center every 15 minutes during peak hours. To make the business traveler’s life even easier, the AECC is located strategically next to the A90 trunk road and is only three miles from the city center.

Need to travel outside of the city? Aberdeen railway station provides regular train service to several parts of the country, including daily services to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and London as well as a regular sleeper service to central London.

·  Destination: Special Events Venue

While meeting in castle country, where else would you host your special event than at an amazing ancient castle? Exuding heritage and mystique is Fyvie Castle, located right in Aberdeenshire.

Filled with 800 years of history, each of the five towers of the fortress represents one of the castle’s five successive families including; Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon, and Forbes-Leith. See each family’s presence at the castle through the different interior touches and medieval stones that make up the beautiful fortress.

The evening’s entertainment will be taken care of by Fyvie’s vast portrait collection that includes works by Batoni, Romney, Gainsborough, Opie, Lawrence, and Hoppner. The castle also houses one of the largest private collections of Raeburns in the world. Adding to the beautiful collection is the array of fine furniture, tapestries, arms and armour throughout the castle. Also unique to the castle is the great stone wheel staircase, which is the finest of its kind in Scotland.

For parties of 50 and larger, the grounds and gardens of Fyvie are just as spectacular for special events, which were landscaped in the early 19th century.

·  About the AECC: Facilities

Located in the heart of Aberdeen on the black sea, the AECC, modernized in 2003, can accommodate groups of 20-2,000.

The AECC features 75,000 square feet of permanent exhibition space, expanded to 220,000 square feet including linked temporary structures. The largest hall can seat up to 2,000 delegates, there are two separate multi-purpose suites that can seat up to 700, with an additional auditorium that can hold up to 440, and a state-of-the-art conference room for 240 delegates.

For smaller meetings, the AECC has 20 meeting rooms with capacities varying from 10 to 150 delegates, making them ideal for any event including break out sessions, interviews, training, workshops, seminars and lunches.

One of the major advantages of the AECC is its flexibility – most of the rooms can be subdivided to suit a variety of meeting types and a number of the main meeting rooms have built in audio visual equipment. The AECC is equipped to suit and customize any meeting of any size.

·  Where to Find Us: Upcoming Shows and Sales Calls

EIBTM: November 28 – 30, 2006 in Barcelona, Spain

PCMA: January 7-10, 2007 in Toronto, Canada

We are scheduling meetings in the Toronto area January 11-12, 2007 and in Boston January 15-16, 2007. If you’d like to meet with us, please contact our US representative at Open the Door, 1-617-536-0590 or at info@openthedoor.biz.

International Confex: February 20-22, 2007 in Earls Court, London

·  Who's Meeting Here?

Subsea ’07: February 6-9, 2007

Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland: March 7, 2007

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) Annual Conference: April 18-22, 2007

·  What Does That Mean?

Scots are known for their insightful and wise adages. It is no surprise that Scotland, therefore, claims to be the birthplace of the “second sight” phenomenon or “taisch,” the Gaelic word for the involuntary ability of seeing into the future. Second sight allegedly originated in the Scottish Highlands— giving Scots a mysterious predisposition to possess good counsel and sound advice.

Here are a few old Scottish phrases:

A stumble helps ye richt yer fall: Stumbling can sometimes prevent a fall.
Patience is more important than sugar: Patience is a better virtue than flattery.
Castles fall but wise words stey: Common sense can never be destroyed.
God gave folks wan face but a’ use anither: Few people reveal their true selves.

·  The Scottish Tartan, Continued...

In our continuing series on tartans, in this issue, we give you the truth behind the Scottish Tartan:

Due to gaps in history that make it difficult to find one’s clan, new patterns have developed for different districts of clans. Football teams and companies have caught on to the tartan craze and have come up with their own tartan pattern, thereby slightly altering its original meaning. Not all are connected to one’s family lineage. The city of Aberdeen, for example, has its own tartan set to represent the Aberdeen district as well as a tartan for the Aberdeen Football Club.