Our History
It’s been a long journey to become the iconic venue we know today… More
The Business Design Centre Group (BDC Group) was founded by Sam Morris in 1954. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Group was mostly involved in retail design and shopfitting.
However, everything changed in the 1980s when the Group rescued the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington from demolition, then redeveloped and reopened it as the Business Design Centre. The BDC became Europe’s first integrated trade and exhibition centre, tailor-made for events and showroom residents.
In 1999, the Morris Family Trust in partnership with Candover Investments acquired the Earls Court and Olympia Group, selling it in 2004. Today, the Group focuses on keeping the BDC at the top of Europe’s event venue list. It also owns the Upper Street Car Park, adjacent to the venue.
The Chairman of the BDC Group is Jack Morris CBE, the youngest of the five brothers who are still the business’ principal shareholders. Dominic Jones is the Chief Executive of the Group. He started working at the BDC in 1991, working his way to become Head of Marketing, Sales Director and eventually the Chief Executive.
It’s been a long journey to become the iconic venue we know today… More
The BDC runs a small team across five departments responsible for day-to-day operations at the venue. More
We're proud recipients of awards from across the events industry as well as both community and national awards and certifications. Being part of membership groups, we invite collaboration and participation across a range of topics and issues. More
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