At your pleasure

Largest Academic Event in Europe Comes to Leeds.

MEETinLEEDS played host to almost 2,000 delegates this July as the world’s most knowledgeable medievalists attended the 20th annual International Medieval Congress – this year on the theme of pleasure. Delegates discussed all aspects of medieval studies at the event before the creation of a Medieval Village in the centre of the University.

Director of the Congress, Axel Muller explained:

Experts from around the world discussed everything from the pleasure of food, music and literature to sex and spirituality. Although it was many hundreds of years ago, we can learn a lot from this period that is relevant to today’s society. They certainly knew how to gain pleasure from a variety of activities and it was fantastic to hear and discuss this subject further during the Congress.”

This is the first time that the congress, the largest of its kind in Europe, has been hosted on the main campus but, thanks to MEETinLEEDS’ excellent events team, delegates experienced an exceptionally well-managed event and have already given some excellent feedback.

As well as a comprehensive programme of lectures for visitors, there were also several events that were open to the public for the first time including; musical performances, food workshops and a lecture on the recent discovery of the skeleton of Richard III in Leicester, by the team who found it.

The Medieval Village in University Square featured a range of activities including historical craft demonstrations such as chain mail production, spinning, textile production, dyeing and even an apothecary. There were also samples of medieval food, a falconry display, musicians and a storyteller.

Hosting an event as large as this takes a great deal of planning explains Richard Handscombe, Head of Sales & Marketing for MEETinLEEDS. Thankfully we have an events team at the University who are second to none and have a wealth of experience in organising events such as these. Work has already begun on next year’s Congress and the team are looking forward to seeing them again.

If you would like to find out more about organising a large event at the University then we would be delighted to speak to you. Just call our Conference and Events Team on 0113 343 6100 or email enquiries@meetinleeds.co.uk