Carden Park Hotel and Imago Venues’ Burleigh Court were named the UK’s venues of the year at the 2026 miaList, the Meetings Industry Association’s annual awards, held at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on 4 November 2026. Lemon Lane took Agency of the Year, Church House Westminster won Events & Operations Team of the Year, and 10 individuals were named on the list itself. If you book venues or agencies for business events, the results are a useful shortlist of teams that peers and judges rated highly this year.
Which venues won Venue of the Year
Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire won gold in the over-300 capacity category, with Hilton Birmingham Metropole taking silver and the British Motor Museum bronze. In the under-300 category, gold went to Imago Venues’ Burleigh Court, silver to Crowne Plaza Gerrards Cross and bronze to Churchill War Rooms with Company of Cooks.
Our Hilton Birmingham Metropole profile has its room capacities and transport details. The other venue winners are not in our directory yet.
Team, agency and supplier awards
Church House Westminster won gold for Events & Operations Team of the Year, ahead of ICC Wales (silver) and Warwick Conferences (bronze). Imago Venues’ commercial team won gold for Sales & Marketing Team of the Year, with ICC Belfast taking silver and Crowne Plaza Newcastle Stephenson Quarter bronze.
Lemon Lane was named Agency of the Year, with Premier Events second and Blackberry Events third. Leopold Marketing Limited won Supplier of the Year, ahead of Selling Savvy and Just Smile Ltd. For organisers choosing a venue team, operations and sales awards are a fair signal of how a venue handles enquiries and event days, though they are judged on entries, not on mystery shopping.
Leadership and rising star awards
Sam Glenister-Batey of University of Leeds Conferences & Events received the Inspirational Leadership Award, which this year was presented in memory of the late Gail Tomlinson-Short. Tori Hodges of Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre won gold for Rising Star, with Isabel Harrison and Scarlett Barker-Niland, both of The Belfry Hotel & Resort, taking silver and bronze.
The 10 individuals named on the 2026 miaList were Abbie Tindal (Access Bookings), Gail Aldridge (The Belfry Hotel & Resort), Hayley Hardy (Imago Venues), Kieron Bowen (Eventurous), Lucy Nicholls (The PS Events Group), Matt Whiteman (The Venues Collection), Michelle Osborne (Nottingham Venues, which runs the East Midlands Conference Centre), Robert Mitchell (Imperial War Museums), Susi Lennie (Crowne Plaza Newcastle Stephenson Quarter) and Tracey Whyte (Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre).
Event, ESG and initiative winners
University of Birmingham’s Christmas on Campus: 125 edition won Event of the Year for events with more than 300 attendees, with Whittlebury Park highly commended for its Formula 1 British Grand Prix weekend. In the under-300 category, Experience North East England won gold for Media Gateway 2026, Event Essex took silver and Whittlebury Park bronze for the France and Ireland Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Celtic Manor Resort won the ESG Initiative award, with Clean the World Global highly commended. Liverpool Hospitality Association won the Destination Initiative award for its agency familiarisation trip in March 2026, and Lumiere London Underwood Flagship won gold for Inclusive Events Initiative, ahead of MEN (Meetings and Events Network) and University of Leeds Conference Events.
About the miaList
The miaList is run by the Meetings Industry Association, the UK trade body for the business meetings and events sector. The MIA says 2026 was the awards’ 16th year, the first time they have been held in Nottingham, and the largest so far with 14 categories. Entries were judged by a panel of industry professionals that included Katie Niland of The Belfry, Mark Green of the QEII Centre and Dale Parmenter of DRPG.
MIA chief executive Shonali Devereaux said: “It’s particularly exciting to see established industry names and organisations celebrated alongside those making their mark for the first time.”
If you are comparing venues in the regions these winners cover, see our Birmingham conference venues and Nottingham conference venues pages.
Companies and venues in this story
- East Midlands Conference CentreRun a conference for up to 850 theatre style or a 50-stand exhibition on the University of Nottingham campus, with free on-site parking and the 203-bedroom Orchard Hotel next door.
- Church House WestminsterYou can run a 600-seat theatre-style conference or a 372-cover dinner under the Assembly Hall dome, with breakouts in the same building and St James's Park station five minutes away.
- Hilton Birmingham MetropoleYou can seat 1,900 theatre style or host 2,000 standing in the Monarch Suite, with 789 bedrooms on site and Birmingham International station a seven-minute walk away.
- ICC WalesYou can run a 1,500-seat plenary, an exhibition on 4,000 m² of pillar-free floor and breakouts in ten spaces under one roof, just off Junction 24 of the M4 with over 2,000 parking spaces.
- Warwick ConferencesHold a conference for up to 1,200 seated delegates and sleep up to 1,358 in en-suite rooms on one Coventry campus, with in-house catering and free delegate parking at the lakeside venues.
- ICC BelfastYou get a 2,000-seat auditorium, a 1,805 m² divisible exhibition hall and in-house catering and production, two minutes' walk from Lanyon Place station in central Belfast.
- Crowne Plaza Newcastle Stephenson QuarterYou get nine meeting rooms, a Stephenson Suite for 450 theatre style and 251 bedrooms under one roof, a seven-minute walk from Newcastle Central Station.
- Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference CentreRun a conference for up to 240 delegates theatre style with 185 bedrooms on site, free parking and a location outside Birmingham's chargeable Clean Air Zone, on the University of Birmingham's Edgbaston campus.
- The Belfry Hotel & ResortYou can seat 920 theatre style or 648 for dinner in The Masters Suite, house delegates in 468 on-site bedrooms and park free, 1 mile from the M6, M6 Toll and M42.
- Celtic Manor ResortYou can run a 1,200-seat theatre plenary, a 900-guest dinner and a 1,231 m² exhibition hall on one estate off junction 24 of the M4, with 332 bedrooms in the resort hotel.
- QEII CentreYou get 32 event spaces opposite Westminster Abbey, room for 1,300 theatre style on the self-contained Third Floor, and in-house catering and AV, four minutes' walk from St James's Park Tube.
- DRPGYou can keep event management, staging, film and digital content with one ISO 20121 certified group, whose work includes BT Consumer Live for a live audience of 4,500.
Sources
- Meetings Industry Association, miaList 2026 page, for the date, venue, year and number of categories, checked 8 November 2026
- M&IT, 6 November 2026, and Event Industry News, reporting the MIA’s winners announcement, full results and quote
- Venues of Excellence, 6 November 2026, confirming its member winners and that Nottingham Venues hosted the evening
