Eleanor Harris: An Eye On British Airways i360

A venue like no other

The high point of my week was taking a hard hat tour inside our beach building, which is situated at the base of the tower. The concrete base was already in and most of the 60 support columns, meaning we were able to visualise where everything will go: the brasserie, kids play zone, exhibition, shop, hospitality rooms, and our team’s offices.
Conference visitors spend nearly ten times the amount that leisure visitors do in the city – so they are vital to our economy. We face competition from cities such as Manchester, Bournemouth, London, Liverpool and Barcelona, and therefore we must continue to improve our offer for the conference market.
We designed the i360 with the conference visitor in mind. Early on, I met with the general managers of the Grand, Metropole and Brighton Centre to find out what they would like to see in the city. Their feedback was that we should create a party venue, where up to 500 delegates could go to in the evenings after their meetings.

This, of course, was a challenge to fit into our building as we also need to provide lots of facilities to attract our daytime visitor guests! The solution has been to build a design with total flexibility. We have three dedicated hospitality rooms on the beach with a private terrace, and we have put in flexible walls that can open up to create larger event spaces so we can hold events for up to 1,000 people (when we are shut to the general public).
Our shop will be designed to be wheeled away with all the fittings and even the shop till points on casters, so the space can be transformed within minutes from a retail space to a contemporary hospitality space.
And what a unique space it is, with stunning views of the sea and West Pier, and the glass pod rising out of it in the building’s heart. The pod itself is a fantastic party venue in the skies with its own Sky Bar. There really is no other venue like this in the UK.
Twitter: @TheBrightoni360 @Eleanor_Harris, Facebook: Brighton-i360, Pinterest: Brightoni360, www.brightoni360.co.uk