Glasgow is a great place for conference events. From the diversity and variety of the city itself, to its ease of access to the rest of Scotland, visitors are never short of things to do and see.

Glasgow Convention Bureau continues to do an excellent job of promoting the city to the world. They have been awarded Top Convention Bureau in the UK for 13 years in a row by the Meeting and Incentive Travel Awards, and have helped bring Glasgow to the forefront of international conference destinations.

Reel Time Events provides a lot of conference entertainment in Glasgow. We’re taking a look at just some of the highlights of our conference event entertainment from this year.

6 Massive Conference Ceilidhs at Merchant Square

During the summer, Reel Time secured a run of 6 GIANT conference events with Merchant Square. Conference organisers were looking for a venue that could easily accommodate up to 1500 delegates to descend en-masse, sit down for dinner, and be entertained. Merchant Square’s range of dining estalishment’s close to the public for the night as the conference delegates takeover to enjoy the evening’s social program.

Reel Time Events provided the entertainment for these 6 conferences:

12th June – Offshore Mechanics & Arctic Engineering (OMAE), 1000 guests

10th July – CAP Partner – Federation of European Microbiologists (FEMS) 2019 Congress of European Microbiologists, 800 guests

18th July – International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe (ISMPMI), 1300 guests

1st Aug – International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC) 2019, 800 guests

4th Sept – European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS) 2019, 1000 guests

8th Oct – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)’s International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) 2019, 1000 guests

We wanted to initiate these huge, international audiences into Scottish culture to ensure their time in Glasgow would never be forgotten. That meant one thing: ceilidh dancing.

The layout of Merchant Square is perfect for this as it has a huge amount of floor space for large groups to dance and spin and twirl about. So we were easily able to accommodate 5900 first-time ceilidh dancers over the 6 events.

Reel Time’s modern ceilidh band ‘Scraggly Cats‘ performed all 6 events. Each event began with the 5-piece band accompanied by 5 Highland Dancers, performing jigs, reels, and the Highland Fling. The Dancers then encouraged the delegates to venture out on to the dance floor, and then helped to teach them ceilidh dances while the band played and called the moves from the stage. With so many ceilidh-newbies, having the Highland Dancers participate and lead by example brought everyone together and gave delegates the confidence to nail the dance moves.

After several ceilidh tunes, the delegates were rewarded for their effort with a disco set from the band who played live covers of songs like Summer of 69, Happy, Uptown Funk, and Don’t Stop Believing.

And finally, for those who just weren’t ready for the night to end, Reel Time always provided a DJ to take the party into the wee hours of the morning.

2 Huge Nights of Evening Entertainment for the British Orthodontics Society’s Glasgow Conference

Another highlight of our Glasgow Conference entertainment this year was back-to-back nights of events at the Glasgow Science Centre and the Crowne Plaza for the British Orthodontic Society.

This is the 2nd time we’ve worked with BOS and we were thrilled to be asked back. This time we wanted to go above and beyond with bigger Scottish show entertainment. Being familiar with the audience, we knew that they were especially fun and enthusiastic, and we wanted to deliver on their expectations for a huge party.

BOS wanted two nights of entertainment for their Glasgow conference. First was the civic reception at the Science Centre, a short walk from their hotel, Crowne Plaza – the location of the second night’s entertainment, and in close proximity to the Scottish Events Campus (SEC), where the conference was held.

Night One: Evening Entertainment at the Glasgow Science Centre

To kick off the civic reception, two Reel Time Pipers led a procession of conference delegates from Crowne Plaza, across the bridge over the River Clyde to the Science Centre. Once across the bridge, they were greeted by a troupe of jugglers and stilt walkers, who helped usher them into the venue.

Once all of the delegates were inside, they were provided food and drinks and left to do some networking, our roaming entertainers mingled and the crowd enthused. After about an hour, our two Reel Time Pipers once again struck up their pipes and led the large group to the entertainment area in the Science Centre.

Tartanium

They were greeted here by Reel Time’s biggest band: Tartanium. A 10 piece rock-band/stage show with Scottish infusions. Tartanium takes a classic rock-and-pop core of drums, guitar, bass, keys and a singer, adds a three-piece horn section of a trombone, trumpet, and saxophone. On top of that, bagpipes and a fiddle provide the authentic Scottish sound and texture. Tartanium plays a set of modern pop covers and Scottish traditional music with a big-band sound. Alongside the band are the Tartanium Dancers, five young ladies in traditional dress to perform jigs, reels, and highland flings with the band.

Tartanium kicked off the show with a reel, with the dancers performing in a space on the floor by the audience. The show moves forward with energy, fervour, and plenty of volume. The band play traditional dances like the highland fling, famous Scottish songs like Wild Mountain Thyme, and modern pop covers like Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.”

Watch the Tartanium Dancers!

Ceilidh Taster

After the show, Tartanium led the guests in a ceilidh taster in preparation for the following night. Roddy called the dances from the stage while playing pipes. The Tartanium dancers mingle with the audience to help them learn the moves. For first timers, it can seem quite daunting. But with the right effort and guidance from the Tartanium dancers, it always comes together.

Disco

After the ceilidh taster, the band continued with a forty-five minute set of pop and disco tunes for the audience to end the night with recent pop hits like Happy, Uptown Funk, and Can’t Stop the Feeling. Plus classic oldies like Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, and Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive.

Fire Performers

As the night came to a close and the guests began to leave the venue, they were seen off by a trio of fire performers outside of the Science Centre for the final part of the night’s entertainment.

Crowne Plaza Conference Entertainment

The following night’s conference entertainment took place at the Crowne Plaza hotel, just across the river from the Science Centre. This second night of entertainment was the responsibility of the same Reel Time band who had such success at the 6 Merchant Square conferences.

Scraggly Cats kick the night off with a full on ceilidh. Having had the taster the night before, the guests were ready to get right in to a ceilidh. They went through several traditional dances: dashing white sergeant, Gay Gordons, the Flying Scotsman, the Virginia reel, and Strip the Willow.

After the ceilidh, the Scraggly Cats performed a disco set of pop classics and modern hit songs.

The band finished their set but the party continued on thanks to one of the Reel Time DJ’s who kept the delegates partying.

We had a great time with the guests of the British Orthodontic Society, and Glasgow proved to be the perfect setting for back-to-back nights of conference entertainment.

Honourable Mention: Kelvingrove Conference Entertainment

We also had the good fortune to take part in the IASSIDD conference at Kelvingrove, where we put on a ceilidh for conference delegates with the help of a group called Indepen-dance. You can see some of what we did in the video below.