The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) features the SEC Centre– five interconnected exhibition and meeting spaces, the iconic 3,000 seat SEC Armadillo and our most recent addition, The OVO Hydro – a 13,000 capacity concert, sporting and special events arena. With its infinite flexibility, the campus has gone from strength to strength and, with planned expansion and development, will continue to position Glasgow on the world stage.

Designed by world-renowned architects Foster + Partners, the SEC Armadillo is a Glasgow landmark with a unique style and practical, comfortable facilities for up to 3,000.

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SEC Centre offers five interconnected exhibition and event halls with a combined area of over 22,000sqm.

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A truly iconic structure, the 13,000 capacity OVO Hydro is Scotland’s home of live entertainment and is consistently ranked by Pollstar in the top 10 arenas globally.

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Home|About the SEC|Social Commitment|Economic Benefit

Economic Benefit

The SEC is a major contributor to the Glasgow and Scottish economies, as well as generating wealth for the UK as a whole.

Consistently placing events, and the event economy, at the heart of its strategy for internationalisation, inward and infrastructural investment Glasgow is currently placed 29th in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) index of 400 cities globally. Added to this, The OVO Hydro is consistently ranked in the top ten arenas globally and The SEC is the 5th largest indoor exhibition space in the UK and part of one of the most versatile event campus’s in Europe.

Economic impact study

In November 2015, the SEC commissioned a study to determine the impact of its operations on the local, Scottish and UK economies through:

  • Calculating the total business expenditure generated by events held at the SEC
  • Calculating the total personal expenditure generated by attending and holding events at the SEC
  • Calculating the total economic impact of the events held in the SEC
  • Estimating the number of full-time equivalent jobs sustained

Results

Between April 2015 and March 2016, a total of 205 events were held at the SEC, attracting approximately 1.82 million visitors and 17,000 exhibitor staff.

The net additional economic impact of the SEC is estimated to be:

  • £354 million in the Glasgow area
  • £274 million in Scotland
  • £223 million in the UK

Using industry benchmarks – sourced from the Scottish Government and derived using Scottish input-output tables – it is estimated that the SEC supports:

  • 5,066 full time equivalent jobs in Glasgow
  • 3,911 in Scotland
  • 3,186 in the UK
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