Two seemingly immovable fixtures on the public sector conferences calendar have moved.

Next year, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) will meet in the Manchester Central venue after 25 years in Harrogate’s conference centre, following in the footsteps of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which two years ago moved to Manchester after 61 years in the Yorkshire spa.

Unusually, very few attendees at public sector conferences will this year enjoy a seaside or spa trip, as there has been a striking migration to city destinations.

The Local Government Association (LGA), the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services all gathered in Birmingham during the early summer. Manchester hosted the CIPD, the NHS Confederation and the Trading Standards Institute. The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services will meet at London’s Excel in October.

Conference organisers are unwilling to discuss exactly what deals they have struck, but price is not the only factor.

In recent years conferences have become generally shorter and delegates have faced increasing demands to justify the time and expense of attending. Thus convenient transport links and the availability of cheaper budget chain hotels have helped big cities against traditional resorts. Less tangibly, some feel an urban location leaves delegates less vulnerable to allegations that they are having a holiday.

Nina Hardman, head of conferences, events and exhibitions at the CIPD, says her event attracts some 5,000 people and left Harrogate because “we wanted to make it more accessible in transport terms, time is important to our delegates.

“Most of our delegates come from London and the south east and there is the cost of tickets, transport and accommodation for them to consider.

“Harrogate is only on a branch line and has a lack of rooms and lack of range, while Manchester has everything from B&Bs through European-style budget hotels and up to five stars.”

Another reason for choosing Manchester Central was that it can accommodate a conference and an unusually large exhibition, while some other venues can handle only one or other.

Hardman says: “I looked at Birmingham, which has an exhibition-based venue at the NEC, and a conference-based one in the city centre, but there is an important social and networking side to our conference so we need restaurants and bars close at hand and three days stuck out at the NEC does not work.”

CIPD will meet in Manchester “for the foreseeable future”, though Hardman declines to say how long.

Rebecca West, organiser of CIPFA’s conference and exhibition, used Birmingham for the first time this year.

“It used to be a longer event so the seaside fitted that because people took time off work,” she says.

“Now it is only three days, and a city fits better. People have to show nowadays that a conference is not a holiday, but almost like a training event, and places like Manchester and Birmingham feel more professional than resorts.”

CIPFA must rotate its conference venue annually to serve a membership spread fairly evenly round the country.

West says that while Birmingham’s International Conference Centre is not cheap, “the support you get from staff is much better than at other venues in terms of traffic control to the exhibition, the presence of stewards, drivers and other things you’d normally pay a lot of money for”.

David Ross, who organises the CIH event, says it took “a long time and a lot of research” to decide to remove its 4,500 delegates from Harrogate.

“I don’t want to knock Harrogate,” he says. “But Manchester has good transport links and a range of hotels that are all within a short walk of the venue, and with a broad range of price points.”

He adds: “Manchester also offers a good context for our event since it is about social housing and there are some 250,000 social houses in the area.

“There is also a good conference quarter of restaurants and bars near to the venue.”

LGA vice-chair Richard Kemp says an accessible location is the most important factor when its board considers officers’ venue proposals, followed by the quality of facilities and the accommodation needed for some 2,000 people.

“If you go to a city you can assume it is going to have anything from the Premier Inn to the Malmaison,” he says.

“Five or six years ago Birmingham was the only city with the right facilities but now there are also Manchester and Liverpool. London is too spread out and expensive.”

The NHS Confederation was in Manchester this year and will be again in 2012.

A spokesman said the event attracts 2,00 people and has a 7,500 sq m exhibition, and normally moves around the country every few years both to be within reasonable distance of a widespread membership and to gain best value from competition among venues.

Venue directors are reluctant to discuss their pricing and strategies for luring events to their facilities, but it looks as though the traditional resorts must do some hard thinking if they want to attract the public sector back.

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