My family used a function room here for my Aunt's 60th Birthday. The function rooms and garden were…read morevery spacious and the drinks were laid on so heavy the karaoke machine was turned on. Despite endless cringing I was happy to see my family having such a good time on such a special occasion. Based on the Alcester Road on the Moseley/Balsall Heath border they cater for conferences, seminars, workshops and celebrations like my Aunties 60th. The room rates are competitive and the facilities and function rooms can cater for up to 150 people. The rooms are fully equipped with audio, video and public address systems. They provide catering, which was surprisingly good for the price. Basically they can meet your requirements quite easily.

One of the social-groups that I work for use Riverside House as a venue for their evening youth…read moregroups. It's a pleasant, spacious and light venue with a 'living room' like space, a large hall that opens out onto the garden. The space is wonderful as it provides the blank canvas for an array of activities. The large hall suited the more boisterous of the characters attending as they could push each other round in a (legitimately purchased) shopping trolley whilst listening to Bob Marley - whereas the living room area provided more of a chill-out space to sit, read or chat. The garden has been a great setting for many games of 'footsal', cartwheel competitions and sky-gazing. It's a really nice venue with a calm, light and uplifting atmosphere. I tend to leave with a spring in my step, which can only be said of a few places of this kind.

I had a really good experience here at the VR hall in this great big exhibit centre. It was kind of…read morehard to find our way around but me, my mom and my sister found our way to the hall we were lookijg fir. We did some vr stuff, all three actually. I fantasy walking one, and sitting down animal one and one that we were standing up in but weren't actually moving (a nepolean one). The only reason this is 4 star is because the last 2 kinda gave me a small headache.

The NEC in Birmingham is a cool, large exhibition centre. It hosts multiple big and well-known…read moreevents throughout the year, if an event is happening in England, outside of London, this is pretty much the place to be. The location is brilliant, it is attached to Birmingham International, where you can catch a train into Birmingham New Street, for the city centre which takes 10-15 minutes, from here you can also use the Air-Rail link which is a free monorail to get to Birmingham Airport in only 90 seconds. There is also Resorts World for shops and restaurants, which even includes a cinema, casino and a couple of hotels across the way. The security staff seem friendly who patrol the walkways, even on a non-event day, on an event day do expect queues for COVID/bag checks, on a normal day it isn't too bad. A couple of small outlets are located here such as WHSmith, Subway and Starbucks, all of these are slightly overpriced but still useful to have. The layout is clear and easy to follow, I do think the signage could be a little clearer upon leaving the main building. Parking is highly expensive so I would recommend the use of public transport due to the fantastic links on that front using National Rail and the Air-Rail Link. 4*

A huge and superbly equipped conference centre in the heart of Birmingham. The location is superb…read morewith the regenerated canalside providing a great backdrop and lots of good hotels within walking distance. The main auditorium is huge with excellent AV facilities. Smaller auditoriums and meeting rooms are also available. The place can feel a bit like a maze as entrance to the various rooms is from multi-levels. Staff are great at direction though. Staff are excellent and food service is good (although could have been faster). Only complaint is a usual one - they need more cubicles in the ladies toilets! The queues get horrendous. For larger conferences this is a superb venue.

A large conference centre in the city centre of Birmingham, inside it, is pretty modern and…read morefeatures a few stores including a WHSmith, Subway and Starbucks - do take note of the opening hours of these though as some might not open on Sunday's and/or close early sometimes. It's now served by the Library stop on the West Midlands Metro, following the tram extension which goes onto Broad Street. It is also next to The Library of Birmingham, while the building isn't as stunning as the aforementioned, it still remains rather modern and cool. The conference auditorium has a capacity of 1,500 which is quite impressive. I do think the staff didn't seem too helpful, I originally asked where the Starbucks was and felt the need to explain myself as he seemed rather confused. It is pretty expensive inside with one of the most expensive Starbucks' locations I've seen ever outside of a travel location (airport, station or motorway services). 3*

Beautiful venue, with a pretty music hall feeling, good-size-for-not-a-city theatre- red velvet,…read moreold decor. The kitchen is huge, halls for hire- the crush hall, theatre (with a well stocked bar), conference rooms. They're making more effort with weddings, hold fayres, events, pantos, burlesque, tributes, amateur and pro theatre (It's definitely worth checking out what is on)- they just held a very busy vegan fair. Staff are fab, facilities are great- it's not super shiny, but they are constantly working to improve it.

Rooms for public hire are what justifies a review; there's very little scope for appraising it as a…read morecivic landmark unto itself. "Rooms", though, may be a little broad; we're really talking about a range of genuine halls and suites available for weddings and wedding receptions, conferences, meetings, exhibitions and other social activities. They've even been known to hold the odd inquest. In appearance, they are very 'town hall', all a bit brass and velvet, although the formal decor must carry an attraction, especially judging by the amount of wedding guests you see milling around outside on Saturday evenings (and they're just the smokers). Versatility is the watch-word, with the venue able to cater for both a range of numbers and a range of food needs, from buffets to literal banquets. The venue has its own catering team. Menus and rates are available on the site's comprehensive website.

Despite many great events popping up at The Bond this year, I only managed to get down to check it…read moreout this weekend. When I heard that a Gin Festival was hitting Digbeth, there wasn't a chance I was going to miss out. So, the Gin Festival was planned over the same weekend of City of Colours which meant that Digbeth had one buzzing weekend planned. I had hoped to get out on Saturday, but after hitting a nightclub on Friday night for a friends birthday; I was a little worse for wear in the day and didn't make it. It did mean that I had a rather special Sunday instead (which ended up being an even better choice than originally planned). Enough with the wittering and down to business... The Bond is located off the main drag of Digbeth and the other side of Heath Mill Lane from the entrance to the Custard Factory. You can walk down Digbeth High Street to get there, but we found it significantly quicker to walk down Fazeley Street from behind the back of Hotel La Tour. It's not that obvious when walking down from Fazeley Street, but one you get outside it there is a big iron sign which tells you that you have arrived. I imagine the building was once a warehouse used for stocking barges (as it's well positioned right next to the canal with a small area for boats to pull in), but it's now an events space. First thing of note... it's pretty big. There is plenty of outdoor space both covered and uncovered and a couple of buildings that were being utilised for the Gin Festival. It may be even bigger than this, but we only saw what was being used on the weekend. It has a large conference style room with a toilet block towards the back, a further indoor space with a smaller room and another toilet block and a large "car park" style area and another largish covered area outside. There is a cafe onsite (which was serving hot dogs on the weekend) but I'm not sure what the permanent fixtures of the site are as I have only been for the one event. I have to say, I really liked this venue. I liked the layout, the mix of outdoor and indoor spaces and the plentiful loos. Seeing as the event was held on a scorching Sunday afternoon, the shaded areas were very welcome and everything was laid out very sensitively. I would definitely attend another event in this space! I can't comment on drinks prices (as I was at a drinks based event), but I'll have to update this review if I get back to more events here.

I nice venue tucked away in Digbeth. There is a lovely courtyard area on the canal which is great…read morefor outdoor event. The are also two big rooms which can be hired out for weddings or markets. I came to a wedding in October and it was warm and cosy and the food was great. This weekend I came along to a winter food market. They had plenty of temporary food shacks set up in the courtyard selling waffles and burgers etc but inside there was stalls selling breads, pies, beers, as well as goods like cards and jewellery. It was a cold but sunny day and a pleasant place to be in. Only a ten min walk from the City Centre I would say.

I know a lot of people use this magnificent building as a walk-through - I do too - but I am in awe…read moreof this place. As an event planner (amongst other things) this place is a dream. Years ago, I attended a few industry events here - all amazing. More recently, I have been to amazing events in the amazing Symphony Hall, housed within the ICC including Glen Campbell and the exclusive event when Beverly Knight got her 'Broad Street Star.' However, my best experience was actually recently when I had a behind the scenes tour for which they allocated one of their security guards - the man in the know - to do this for us. The way this place transforms with a touch of a button (or hundreds of buttons) to make every event special is amazing. As a bonus, he had so many back stage stories to tell it was hugely entertaining!

The ICC holds all kinds of conferences from party conferences (it's the only place which has had…read moreall 3 main political parties) to Slimming World conferences. Most people see it as a corridor from Centenary Square to the canals and Brindley Place and in a lot of ways it is. I'd much prefer to walk through the ICC to get to the canals then walk that small stretch of Broad Street especially at night/in the rain. However, what a lot of people don't realise is behind the fronts you walk past there are over 10 halls, some with the capacity to hold over a thousand delegates. They're all really swanky too, and they have a wonderful events team that can transform any space as far as the client's imagination can reach. The staff are friendly and always smiley. A great place to pop to the toilet too if you're in town.

This review is based more on the amount of times I've booked The Studio's facilities for a couple…read moreof events I've put on. I've used the studio now about 5 times and that's because it's located in central Birmingham and has easy transport links to get to the venue. It's also one of the most chic venues to host an event, the last event I hosted at the studio was in March 2012 and I'm hosting another event there on the 30th May 2012. They've been great to me, offered me a discounted booking price for the room hire and I've received great feedback about the food there from the guests who've attended my events. Personal recommendation, Mandy & Rebecca are two very helpful members of staff who have always given me 10 out of 10 service. If you happen to book a venue for your next event then the studio is the place and do ask for either one of those staff members.

I came here once for a course and this venue was perfect. It's very clean, feels new and modern…read morewith spacious rooms, rooms with large screens for lectures as well as a coffee break room. The studio is perfect for hosting courses, lectures etc. and is very centrally located in Birmingham city.

Lovely quiet venue in the heart of Birmingham. Very friendly staff and good facilities (tea,…read morecoffee, free and reliable Wi-Fi) at very reasonable prices. The building itself is a Quaker facility that features a number of rooms that can be used for meetings or seminars. Parking can be a challenge as there are limited number of spaces outside, but typically not an issue as great public transport links nearby.