Vocabulary notes

Abundant	More than enough
Access	Chance to use
Additional extras	Things which are given but are not normally included
At someone’s fingertips	Very near, ready to use
Crucial	Very important
Flip-chat	Large pad of paper on a board, used when giving presentations, etc.
Interconnecting with	Joined to
Off my own bat	Without being told to do it
Top of the range	The best of them all
Venue	Place where people meet for a large event, e.g. a sports contest, a concert or a conference
VHS	Video recording system

UNIT 10

Conferences

• Conference facilities

• Describing size and dimention

• Business party

1 Reading

Read the text and answer the questions

The drive to attract business visitors to Birmingham has reached the point where Britain's second biggest city is being physically and dramatically transformed.

The reason is to be found in a strategy adopted by the city fathers to regain some of Birmingham's last international standing as a centre of manufacturing industry by building up its service sector - and in particular, business tourism.

It is not so very long ago that the city flourished from the early days of the industrial revolution. It was renowned as the capital of the west Midlands industrial heartland with customers from around the world beating a path to its factories' doors, up until the late 1960s.

Boom turned to slump in the 1970s as British industry lost, its competitiveness and recession began to bite.

With manufacturing employment plummeting, Birmingham decided to fight back by building a new economic base that would transform it into an international business centre.

Its first bold step came in the 1970s when it established the National Exhibition Center, Britain's first purpose-built exhibition centre. The notion that an exhibition сеntre could succeed outside London was widely ridiculed at the time, but the National Exhibition Center worked. Opened in 1976, it now hosts nearly all the most important British exhibitions and has helped put Birmingham bad on the international map.

Encouraged by this success, Birmingham has embarked on a still more ambitious scheme aimed at attracting new investment and jobs. This is the construction of the International Convention Centre.

It has 11 halls with seating capacities varying from 120 to 3,000 and includes 2,200-seat symphony hall.

It is designed to cater for two main categories of convention business: association conferences, such as the annual meetings of professional bodies, and corporate conferences, along the lines of those held periodically by companies to motivate sales staff or launch products.

The city has thrown itself into redevelopment in an attempt to transform itself into a city to rank with the likes of Frankfurt, Barcelona or Milan.

One example of the redevelopment is the hotel building going on in Birmingham. About 40 hotels are under construction, providing 4,000 bedrooms - the biggest of the new hotels being the 24-storey mirror-glass Hyatt Regency.

Also built by the convention center is the Brindley Place which includes canalised shopping, an aquarium, cinemas, a two-star family hotel, offices, car parking.

Today finds the city in a period of transition. For the moment, it lacks any restaurants of distinction, but the amenities are improving, not just in terms of the reconstruction, but also in Birmingham's determination to accomplish their ambitious plans.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why did the city authorities decide to transform it?

2. What was the status of Birmingham in the early days of the industrial revolution?

3. How did the situation change and why?

4. How did the city fight back?

5. What was the first step in the transformation process?

6. What did the first success encourage Birmingham to do further?

7. What kind of the International Convention Centre was constructed?

8. What is the most vivid example of the city redevelopment?

9. What period is the city living through now?

Give a summary of the text.