ACC Liverpool

The Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool is a £164million project on the city's famous King's Waterfront.

It incorporates the 10,600-seat Echo Arena and the state-of-the art BT Convention Centre, which has 1,350 seats and total exhibition space of 7,000 square metres.

ACC Liverpool, designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre, opened in January 2008, in time for the city's celebrations as European Capital of Culture. Its aim is to be the greenest facility of its kind in Europe, with a purpose built wind farm, rainwater harvesting on the roof and a design believed to produce half the CO2 emissions of a traditional, similar-sized building.

The Echo Arena is playing host this year to major performers including Elton John, Coldplay and the Wombats, as well as hosting the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards - an event which was last year broadcast to a potential worldwide audience of £1.5billion.

The BT Convention Centre is on course to have an economic impact of around £60million on the region in 2008, thanks to it attracting events from organisations such as the Liberal Democrats, the British Chambers of Commerce and the National Association of Head Teachers.

Facilities are also just a stone's throw away from one of the UK's most visited attractions, the Albert Dock - which is part of a designated World Heritage site - and one of the most vibrant city centres in the country.

ACC Liverpool's partners are Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, regeneration agency English Partnerships, the European Objective One programme and the North West Regional Development Agency.