Venue Forum Focuses On Luleå

Pierre Tornkvist, head of marketing at Luleå’s House of Arts, will advise the Nordic Venue Forum on how venues can best attract visitors, and remain relevant to audiences, throughout the year.

He’ll tell the annual gathering, which this year is at Oslo’s Quality Hotel Expo June 19-20, that the solution is to establish the venue as a “cultural hybrid.”

Opened in 2007, the Luleå building combines concert halls, a conference venue, art exhibition halls, a library with restaurant and café facilities, and a tourist centre.

It’s certainly worked on the coast of northern Sweden, where the population of Luleå has grown by 50 percent to 70,000 in the last two years.

“In our opening season we welcomed over 900,000 visitors to our venue,” Tornkvist, explained. “And, after five years, we still attract around 800,000 people per year.”

At the Nordic Venue Forum, delegates will be offered a unique insight into how the House of Arts has used creative programming, and cross-fertilization of additional services to continually offer visitors new experiences and establish itself as a vibrant destination for the city.