A new venue for the Breakfast Connection will be launched next year aftermore than ten years at Birmingham's ICC, organisers have revealed.
The move comes after The NEC Group, which runs the ICC, earlier this year pulled out of hosting the networking event. It plans to host a different forum called the Big Debate from next year.
Since the decision, joint organisers of the Breakfast Connection have been seeking a new home to host their meetings.
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Now Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCI) and Birmingham Forward have revealed the re-born Breakfast Connection will from next year be held at The Burlington Hotel, near New Street Station
A Chamber spokesman said: "Nearly 400 delegates were attracted when the right speakers were engaged in the past and our aim will be to bring nationally-known figures to Birmingham. The new venue can accommodate up to 380 delegates so there is plenty of scope for attracting big names."
The first new Breakfast Connection of next year will be on Wednesday, January 18, and the speaker will be announced shortly.
Three other dates have been earmarked - April 6, September 12 and November 22.
The final Breakfast Connection at the ICC took place last week when the speaker was Sylvia King, chief executive of The Public, West Bromwich's creative industries and arts project.
Earlier this year The NEC group decided the Breakfast Connection had run its course at the ICC. The move came as the NEC group takes a fresh look at a range of issues under chief executive Andrew Morris, who took over this year from Barry Cleverdon.
Breakfast Connection is one of the region's best-known networking events and it has been at the Birmingham city centre venue since 1992.
Over recent months, numbers attending have dropped to around 200 from a high of up to 450. Organisers the NEC Group, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Birmingham Forward held a crunch meeting this summer to thrash out a battleplan.
A joint statement afterwards said the three partners in Breakfast Connection were in agreement that networking opportunities remained an important and valuable part of business life in the city.
The statement said: "Breakfast Connection will continue, but in a slightly different format and at a different venue while the ICC will play host, from 2006, to the Big Debate - a new venture by organised the NEC Group in partnership with Birmingham Chamber and Birmingham Forward."
The event would aim to attract heavyweight speakers from regional and national political, business and social arenas --and would be chaired in a "Question Time" format.
At the time of the statement, Debbie Thomas, director of marketing and public affairs for the NEC Group, said an NEC representative would continue to attend the new Breakfast Connection.
