The Scottish Event Campus’ CEO Peter Duthie speaks to Joe Gallop about the highlights of his 40-year career at the Glasgow complex, his cricket career for Scotland, and how the SEC has evolved since being opened by a shambolic UB40 gig in 1985.
Peter Duthie earned his first Scotland cricket cap the same year he joined the Scottish Event Campus in 1984. Fast forward 30 years, Duthie was appointed CEO, and now a decade later, he celebrates a remarkable 40 years at the campus, with his focus now set on the venue’s £80m expansion.
Duthie, who acquired 53 caps in 11 years for Scotland, says: “I was very fortunate that the company was good to me throughout that spell because they gave me extra time off. I was able to have a holiday as well as go away and play cricket, because the time demands, even as an amateur player were quite significant.
“I had the chance to play with and against some of the best players in the world – the likes of Ian Botham, David Gower and Michael Holding. I had the privilege of playing at Lords a couple of times, and travelling to play in places like Canada, West Indies and Hong Kong.”
Duthie comes from a sports management background and was initially responsible for sporting events and concerts at the SEC (formerly known as the SECC). He has been a member of the senior management team since 1991, rising to the position of commercial director in 2008.
Overseeing exhibitions at the SEC Centre, conferences at the SEC ‘Armadillo’ and live entertainment at the OVO Hydro, Duthie has been at the forefront of drastic change in the industry, witnessing the highs of hosting major events such as climate action conference COP26 and the Commonwealth Games, and the lows of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As chair of the Scottish Government Event Industry Advisory Group (EIAG), Duthie was a key figure in the Scottish events industry during the pandemic. As chair of the Glasgow Tourism Partnership, Duthie sits on the Glasow Economic Leadership board. He is also a director and board member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Last year, Duthie was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Strathclyde in recognition of his contribution to culture, business and society.
Blockbuster shows
It all began with the SECC being opened by reggae and pop band UB40 (who incidentally play the Hydro later this year) in 1985, which Duthie describes as “a bit of a shambles” due to the venue team largely coming from an exhibition background.
Looking back on the history of exhibitions at the SEC, Duthie says: “When I first started, the NEC had been open for a few years, as well as the old Scotland Olympia, but in Glasgow exhibitions took place in the Kelvin Hall, which wasn’t a bespoke facility. All that business transferred into a new facility when we opened, which gave us a baseline of business to start up.”
Duthie recalls the trend of huge “blockbuster shows”, which served as the cornerstone of the SEC’s development: “The Motor Show was a massive show for us early on, with the royal opening in November 1985. The month before, the Modern Homes exhibition, which is the equivalent of the Ideal Home Show, also took place. These were massive, blockbuster shows back in those days, which ran over 17 days, with more than 275,000 visitors.”
Duthie says the evolution of the campus into live and conferences was not something he anticipated due to his team’s exhibition background: “The live and conference sectors have grown substantially. The exhibition sector has probably changed slightly less than some of the other sectors but it has certainly evolved. The shows have refined down to become a bit more niche and targeted, with a shorter duration, particularly on the consumer side which is the main bulk of our businesses.”
Picture by Christian Cooksey/CookseyPix.com
He adds: “As exhibitions have evolved, there’s been a little blurring of the lines of the sectors we operate in, where you see dynamic live experiences, as opposed to your more traditional exhibition presentation that we used to see.”
Following the rise of the ‘confex’ model, the opening of the ‘Armadillo’ in 1997 kickstarted the SEC’s conference business at scale. Another key development was the SEC deciding to invest in a purpose-built concert arena, with the Hydro opening in 2013.
Says Duthie: “We were aware that the NEC was staging large-scale concerts with a temporary infrastructure built in an exhibition hall, then we started doing business that way as well. That was how we built our live entertainment business for many years, effectively creating a ‘seated window’ where we put the infrastructure in to facilitate concerts for two or three weeks. That served us well for a number of years, we used to do about 70 shows a year.
“Opening the Hydro allowed us to transfer all our live entertainment business in there, which freed up more availability to facilitate growth in the exhibitions sector.”
Career highlights
Duthie’s highlights include hosting the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, which attracted 4.3 million visitors over 152 days, featuring lakes, lagoons, flamingos, and rainforest areas, as well as the 1997 Rotary International Conference – the biggest conference and exhibition ever staged in Scotland at that time with 24,000 delegates in attendance.
As for low points, Duthie mentions a flood in December 1994 that saw the River Kelvin burst its banks and leave devastation on the site: “The resilience that was shown by all our contractors and people on site to get us back and running within five days was extraordinary.”
Other highlights of Duthie’s career include winning the Best Venue award at the 2018 Exhibition News Awards, as well as bringing Clothes Show Live to Glasgow in 2012 and All-Energy in 2015.
“I couldn’t not mention COP26, it was absolutely huge,” Duthie adds. “There were 38,000 badge attendees and 109,000sqm of space was used. To put that into context, we only have 22,000sqm of exhibition space – they built about 80,000sqm of temporary space on our site. It was incredible to deliver what the UN regarded as the most successful COP ever, in the middle of a pandemic.
COP26
“COP and the 2014 Commonwealth Games gave us a massive global profile and helped build our reputation even further. Delivering a complex event on the campus gave organisers of exhibitions and large-scale conferences that confidence in the SEC and Glasgow’s capability.
“We continue to punch above our weight in those sectors in terms of bringing business into Scotland.”
There are now plans to double the campus’ capacity with an £80m revamp recently unveiled.
Looking ahead, Duthie says: “We have plans to expand our campus, particularly to develop our conference offering but also create additional exhibition space. We’re keen to get that across the line. It does require a significant level of public funding to make it work, but it will deliver massive tax revenues for government, so there’s a public infrastructure investment opportunity.”
Reflecting on his SEC career, Duthie says: “It was great to be there right from the start. It’s been an extraordinary privilege to have been part of the journey, growth and evolution of all sectors of our business – live entertainment, conferences and exhibitions.”
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