Sheffield City Hall is set to welcome students from all corners of the country as the NUS National Conference 2012 gets underway this week.

Coming to Sheffield for the very first time, the event, which takes place over three days (Tuesday 24 April- Thursday 26 April 2012) will see around 1,500 delegates come to the city.

The NUS Conference gathers student leaders from across the UK to set NUS policy for the year ahead and elect national student representatives. This year the conference will also be streamed live for the first time, via the NUS website www.nus.org.uk.

Following the Liberal Democrat’s Spring Conference last year and more recent events such as the Global Manufacturing Festival and MINT International Conference, it makes for yet another high profile business event to be hosted at the venue. This yet again reaffirms City Hall as Sheffield’s premier convention centre and also Sheffield itself as a desirable convention destination.

Liam Burns, NUS President, said: "We are delighted to be bringing the NUS National Conference to Sheffield. It's a fantastic opportunity to visit a great city and we look forward to being welcomed by the people of Sheffield.

"Sheffield has one of the largest and most diverse student populations in the country with 60,000 students at two great universities, the largest further education provider in Europe and Students' Unions that have a real impact in their local area.”

Student orientated events are becoming something of a trend for Sheffield International Venues (SIV), operator of Sheffield City Hall, as the sports and leisure company has been a key host for a number events including the prestigious UK School Games 2011 and the British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) Championship 2012, an event which has been held across the city for the last 5 years. In addition, the company hosts the Sheffield Hallam University graduations each year as well as numerous student balls and exams.

As a result, SIV has reported that its venues have welcomed over 10,000 students in last the 12 months generating well over £1m in economic impact for the city. If this wasn’t enough, the SIV Events team were also successful in securing the NUS Conference again for 2013.

Dominic Stokes, General Manager of SIV Events said: “Sheffield is undoubtedly becoming the destination of choice for student events. From major sporting competitions to national conferences, SIV has shown that it has the facilities and event management expertise to deliver events.

Securing both the 2012 and 2013 NUS Conferences has been a real coup, not only is it great business, but it also exposes the next generation of decision leaders to Sheffield.”