Manchester Conference Centre

The Manchester Conference Centre is a conference centre in Manchester, England that used to be owned and managed by the Opal Property Group, which has several locations, distributed over the campus of Manchester University. As the Weston Building it was originally built, owned and operated by UMIST.

When it was built in 1992, British universities had already become established in the conference market, providing large-scale facilities for conferences during university vacation down-time, and bringing in cash to help bridge the funding gap. The Manchester Conference Centre was built to appeal to the corporate market; the architecture is modern.

The Sackville complex was built in 1991. The lower foyer features a pendulum reminiscent of a Foucault pendulums, but ironically it is not a real Foucault pendulum as it doesn't precess. Instead, once the pendulum is set swinging in a particular direction, it continues to swing in that direction without deviation, despite the Earth's rotation. The reason for that is unclear. As is common for such pendulums, it is pushed by an electro-magnet — embedded in the static sphere at the base — to keep it swinging.

The Manchester Conference Centre's 117 bedroom hotel was rebranded in 2014 to The Pendulum Hotel.