A new ‘centre of excellence’ dedicated to child
health technology will help attract illustrious international meetings to Sheffield, UK, city leaders hope.
The £26m National Centre for Child
Health Technology (NCCHT) will develop ‘the most advanced and integrated
healthcare system for children and young people' in the world.
The 'world-first' facility will be based at Legacy
Park, set up after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to improve the health
and wellbeing of the population.
Building work is expected to start this year.
The NCCHT is the brainchild of one
of Sheffield’s conference ambassadors, Professor Paul Dimitri, director of research and innovation at Sheffield Children’s
NHS Foundation Trust, and founder of the annual Child
Health Technology Conference in Sheffield, now in its third year.
Artists impression of the National Centre for Child Health Technology Photo Credit: Sheffield Marketing/Sheffield Legacy Park
The Sheffield Conference Ambassador Programme, run by Marketing Sheffield’s Conference Team, recently
celebrated its 15th anniversary. It is one of the longest
running initiatives of its kind in the UK and has underpinned the long-term
success of the city’s conference calendar by supporting
academics, medical specialists, and industry experts, in attracting major
conferences to be hosted in the city.
Establishing a national centre of excellence in Sheffield creates even greater opportunity for us to attract major national and international conferences to the city
Emma France, marketing manager for Business Tourism and Trade at Marketing Sheffield
Ambassadors use
conferences as a key platform to showcase expertise, share latest research, and
seek collaborative opportunities with peers from across the world.
Following the pandemic, Sheffield’s ambassadors have secured conferences worth
£4.6m, including: the Annual International Stillbirth Alliance Conference; the
British Association of Paediatric Surgeons Annual Congress; NDE In Nuclear
Conference; the International Society for Study of Celiac Disease General
Assembly and the 52nd Meeting of the British Society for Paediatric
Endocrinology and Diabetes.
Emma France, marketing manager for Business Tourism
and Trade
at Marketing Sheffield, said: “We are fortunate to have a network of
ambassadors with endless enthusiasm for telling the world where Sheffield leads
the way.
"They’re also supporting us as we launch a new
drive to find the next generation of conference ambassadors in the city and
look towards the movers and shakers, who will be the experts of the future and
can help us grow the programme even more.”
“Establishing a national centre of
excellence in Sheffield like the National Centre for Child Health Technology,
creates even greater opportunity for us to attract major national and
international conferences to the city, in this highly competitive sector.”
Dimitri
said: “The National Centre for Child Health Technology is set to develop the
most advanced therapies for children and young people in the world. It will
play a central role in ensuring that we advance the way we develop sustainable
and transformational healthcare and drive prevention for children to ensure the
future is bright.”
“The Child
Health Technology Conference, our home-grown event developed with Marketing
Sheffield, has played an important role in uniting colleagues from around the
world who share our common goal and has helped progress plans to establish the
NCCHT in Sheffield. We look forward to hosting another edition of the
conference later this year.”
Written By
James Lancaster
AMI editor James
Lancaster is a familiar face in the meetings industry and international
association community. Since joining AMI in 2010, he has gained a reputation
for asking difficult questions and getting lost in convention centres. Proofer, podcaster, and panellist - in his spare time, James likes to walk,
read, listen to music, and drink beer.
