Tuesday 8 January 2008

Arena visit

Still recovering from a bug which laid me low for most of the holiday break - so hardly any blogging to date.

Illness also meant I've been less than active - but I did manage to get along to the new Arena and Convention Centre on Friday for the sneak preview for 08 ambassadors.

I remember several years ago taking part in a question and answer panel for young people - and one of the big gripes was that they had to keep going to Manchester to see bands. Well that should be less of a problem now we have our own Arena here. And looking through the list of things coming up - some of the events are already booked out.

It's hard to get a sense of scale from someone telling you about capacity - you really have to see the place. It looked, and felt, like it would be a huge success -and according to the press the bookings the building has taken already have meant its already beating its targets.

Feeling under the weather on Friday, I wasn't able to stay for the whole event, but most of the comments from people around me about the venue were really positive. My only grumble would be that the catering concession really needs to sort out a better system to serve people quickly. Although given that the sneak preview event was also a way of the staff practising dealing with the public in large numbers, I rather suspect that problem is solved now.