More than 26,000 delegates, including the Queen, visited the International Festival for Business (IFB2016), which took place at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

The three-week festival, held throughout June at the waterfront venue, was delivered in partnership with UK Trade & Investment, the GREAT Britain Campaign and with the support of the UK Government. It featured around 80 different events.

“IFB2016 was the largest event we have hosted in Exhibition Centre Liverpool since we opened our doors in September 2015,” said Bob Prattey, chief executive of The ACC Liverpool Group (home to the BT Convention Centre, Echo Arena and Exhibition Centre Liverpool). “For three weeks the venue was transformed into a hub for exhibitions, seminars, networking events and inspirational speakers – the scale of which has never been seen in Liverpool, or indeed the UK, before.

“Among the highlights of the festival was the official opening of Exhibition Centre Liverpool and Pullman Liverpool by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh – it was an honour to welcome the royal party back to ACC Liverpool.”

High profile business leaders including Sir Terry Leahy and Sir Martin Sorrell gave keynote speeches and political leaders who attended included George Osborne, Michael Heseltine and F W de Clerk.

Max Steinberg, chairman of IFB2016, said: “Scores of international delegates, many of whom had never visited Liverpool before, went out of their way to tell us how much the city and Exhibition Centre Liverpool wowed them.”

IFB is set to return to Exhibition Centre Liverpool in 2018 and 2020.