Newport-based venue becomes the first in Wales to host the event

ICC Wales, Newport’s state-of-the-art convention centre, has been confirmed as the first Welsh venue to host the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Congress in its current format, which will take place in June 2024.

The five-day event, which is expected to welcome more than 2,000 delegates, is set to boost the local economy by £5.8m, with attendees from all parts of the UK seeking accommodation in hotels across Newport and Cardiff.

The Congress will take exclusive use of ICC Wales with its sister venue at Celtic Manor Resort supporting by providing accommodation, meeting spaces for fringe events and by hosting the event’s main dinner.

The RCN Congress is the ultimate opportunity for nurses to network with peers, hear from exceptional keynote speakers and take part in hot-topic debates about the issues affecting the nursing workforce.

The announcement that the 2024 event will take place at ICC Wales from June 2-6 strengthens Wales’s status as a destination for healthcare meetings and business events in general, with the RCN previously holding its Congress in major UK cities including Brighton, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Belfast.

Commenting on the announcement, ICC Wales Chief Executive Ian Edwards said: “We’re excited to be the first Welsh venue to host the Royal College of Nursing Congress next spring. This event is one of the largest and most important association conferences in the UK and it was right at the top of our target list when we launched the ICC Wales venue in 2019.

“Bringing it here so quickly, when you consider the closures caused by Covid, is a fantastic endorsement of the exceptional and expansive facilities we have at ICC Wales, and the trust that event organisers place in our dedicated team.

“The economic impact calculations also underline the benefits that these big conferences bring to the visitor economy in Wales with the event’s accommodation requirements being met by not just our venues within the Celtic Collection, but also by hotels across the cities of Newport and Cardiff.”

Helen Whyley, Director, RCN Wales, said: “As the Director of the RCN here in Wales, I am delighted that we will be hosting RCN Congress at the ICC, in Newport, in 2024. RCN members from across the UK will be welcomed to Wales with open arms, to network, share knowledge and participate in the UK’s largest nursing event.”

The RCN Congress is the latest in a series of large-scale healthcare events due to take place at ICC Wales in the coming year, including The British Renal Society’s UK Kidney Week and the British Elbow & Shoulder Society annual meeting in June, The British Society of Echocardiography’s conference in October; The UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) and the British Society of Interventional Radiology annual meetings, which will both take place in November.

The venue has also confirmed medical events for 2024 including the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Great Britain and Ireland’s annual meeting in March, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s Spring Conference in April, and the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland’s (ACPGBI) annual meeting in June and July.