Unity Place is a vision of event-spaces of tomorrow. Forward thinking, brilliantly located, and passionately sustainable - this modern wonder is an exciting reinvention of what a venue can be.
We visited Unity Place recently, not quite sure what we’d find when we arrived in Milton Keynes. It’s fair to say our expectations were blown out of the water - this is one of the freshest venues we’ve ever previewed on a Venue Showcase.
The Brilliant location means nearly everywhere in the country is accessible via Road and Rail, with London 30 mins away, and Manchester only 90. Sustainability echoes through every part of this venue, and you know we love to see a team focussed on the future! That’s ultimately what this venue is, a future-forward venue that incorporates so many new twists on the traditional meeting space, from the Urban Food Market to the Sky Lounge to the brand new, in house, Bakery and Convenience Store.
It goes without saying that the meeting spaces at Unity Place knock it out of the park, all of their spaces are available to hire, including the Dipna Anand Kitchen and the Auditorium. The 3 smaller meeting spaces on offer here are brilliant too, bright, airy and welcoming. The biggest compliment that we can pay Unity Place is that it exudes positivity. This is a place to come with your team and be productive, proactive and comfortable for your next event.
Unity Place is in Milton Keynes, meaning it’s never too far from anywhere, from the front door of this venue, you’re 33 mins from Luton Airport, 30 seconds from Milton Keynes Train Station, 29 mins from Euston, 45 from Birmingham and just 90 from Manchester. The versatility that this venue brings on the inside is exemplified by the versatility of the location. Whether your team is based in the North or South, making it over to this central location is a simple task - with connections by rail, road and air. At the Delegate wranglers, we’re based in Liverpool, and even from there, it only took us 1hr 45 on the train - we couldn’t even finish the film we’d downloaded!
The building is vast, and we mean it. There are eight stories of what seems like pure glass that sprawl across this huge complex. We often talk about the importance of natural light in meeting spaces and Unity Place is maybe the prime example of why it’s so important, nearly every room in this venue has access to sunlight (weather permitting!) and it really brings the venue to life. The light really brings the brightly coloured, industrial styled spaces to life, making them feel airy and homely at the same time.
There’s a real modern sensibility about everything this venue does, that even extends to the signage and house style of the venue, from the meeting spaces’ decor to the big bold UNITY PLACE sign above the revolving doors that you enter through, there’s a uniformity and cohesiveness about the place that brings it all together. The venue is well signposted, as well as being full of helpful staff, meaning you’ll never get lost in this great big setting.
Once inside, we were struck by a couple of things right off the bat. Firstly, is the accessibility of the venue. All of the entrance doors are powered, as well as all routes through the building having a minimum of 1.5m width for wheelchair access. The team told us the importance of Unity being a venue for all - and this absolutely rings true.
Secondly is just how sustainable this venue is. From the gorgeous plants and greenery inside the building, or the smell of locally sourced ingredients, or even the wooden furnishings, everything feels carefully considered when it comes to the environment. Unity Place has some amazing initiatives that go far beyond what we usually see when it comes to sustainability commitments, such as bird and insect boxes across the terraces, rainwater harvesting and PV solar panels that offset 40 tonnes of CO2 per year. It really was no surprise to us when the team told us they’d been nominated for the World Architecture Awards in 2022.
While this venue doesn’t have any bedrooms, the team at Unity have Partnered with Moxy Hotels to offer brilliant places for delegates to stay, literally seconds away. There’s also plenty of DW favourites nearby, like Mercure and Leonardo hotels.
Address: 200 Grafton Gate, Milton Keynes, MK9 1UP
Website: www.unityplace.co.uk
Conference Sales Contact: Megan Hassall
Tel: 01908 018595
Email: unityplaceevents@restaurantassociates.co.uk
Distance from nearest airport: Luton : 33 minutes
Distance from nearest railway station: Milton Keynes – 30 seconds walk. Only 29 minutes from London Euston, 45 minutes from Birmingham, 1 hour 30 minutes Manchester.
The amazing part of Unity place being so forward thinking, is that you can find just about anything here. There’s a fantastic co-working space X+why, which has such a chilled out vibe you’d never think hundreds of people get masses of work done here every day! There’s a gym (which is unfortunately not open to guests) as well as their brand new “Corner Store” for grabbing essentials through a busy day of eventing.
One thing that Unity place has in abundance is amazing food and drink. The catering capabilities here are truly fantastic and will leave any guest wowed by the exciting cuisine on display. Despite there only being 4 dedicated events spaces, all of the dining spaces can be used for private hire and seat anything from rooms with 40 guest maximums, all the way to 315!
It’s near impossible to pick a favourite, but when it comes to variability, the Urban Food Market is an amazing space with so many options to fill delegate bellies. You’re faced with a huge digital screen and plenty of seating across two levels, ground and a mezzanine which is an elaborate wooden piece of architecture. On the ground floor there are many different food stalls like Bandit Bird and Meraki that offer food from all corners of the world. The Urban Food Market can host up to 400 Pax for a standing reception and has so much seating that makes eating here never feel claustrophobic. The capacity counts in this space match brilliantly with that of the Auditorium, meaning that this is a brilliant complimentary lunch or dinner space during a day of talks or presentations!
Another great place to grab a bite is the Dipna Anand Kitchen and Bar, this is a slightly smaller eatery that is home to amazing south Indian eats, from a menu designed by the restaurant’s namesake celebrity chef. The options on offer here vary from veggie, plant based dishes to gorgeous meaty bites. Our favourite was the lamb kebab - absolutely ridiculously tasty. We'd have had another straight away if it wasn’t for our booking at the next spot…
The third and final catering facility at Unity Place was the classy, high-end Unity Sky Lounge. This amazing rooftop space is filled with natural plant life and flooded with natural light, it’s the embodiment of everything that Unity Place stands for, it’s luxurious without feeling snooty - still a welcoming place for all guests. The drinks menu is the star of the show here with amazing mixologists preparing fantastic cocktails and premium beverages at your disposal too. There’s also an informal Al Fresco menu for you to choose a bite to eat from. This is a fantastic space that screams networking event - there’s so much open space, as well as there being plenty of chairs and tables for an industry speed dating style social! We really enjoyed this space, it’s imbued with all of the positivity we talked about in the overview - not to mention how friendly the front of house staff were! There’s a knockout hire package for this space which allows for your event to be hosted in the Sky Lounge from 5pm-11pm, with two drinks per person, bowl buffets and designated event management - what a great way to enjoy this space.
Now it’s time to talk about the amazing meeting spaces on offer at Unity Place, and all four of them are stand outs - so we had to make them all highlights. Lucky for us, Unity’s flexible design of these spaces means their ability to combine and break out from one another allows meeting space 2&3 to be put together.
Each of these rooms, when combined or separate, have registration spaces outside the entranceway, which the dedicated team of highly experienced event staff on site can help you put together your event in whatever configuration you’d like!
All of the Meeting spaces at Unity Place are on the first floor, making every space strides away from another, allowing for a full floor takeover when needed - with the meeting spaces acting as breakout rooms to the main auditorium space - a convention would be perfectly suited across these rooms! There’s also a cloakroom facility on the floor which is accessible to delegates and organisers at a moment's notice.
There’s plenty of day delegate packages that include so many varieties of food and drink combinations, from the Canopies package, to Pizza, to the Urban Food Market sample which we think would be our choice - which allows you to have a try from all the brilliant cuisines that are on offer there. We’re getting hungry again… quick - let’s get onto the meeting space highlights!
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Meeting Space Highlight: Event Space 1
With floor to ceiling windows spinning the full length of this room’s far wall, you’ll be flooded with an open, airy vibe that brings the industrial - quirky exposed lighting fixtures and ceiling decorations to life! The room is brilliantly versatile, able to seat cabaret, banquet, classroom arrangements, and so much more. Blinds can be drawn for presentations, which can be given on the plethora of screens available, such as a huge digital screen, and two accompanying additional screens to make sure all delegates can enjoy the event from any angle! The innovative ceiling speaker system allows for this too, with 20-30 embedded speakers in the vaulting. This room was an exemplary way to show off the progressive and future forward thinking that flows through every room of Unity Place.
Location- 1st Floor
Natural light: yes
Reception: 150
Theatre: 150
Cabaret: 130
Classroom: n/a
Dinner: 130
AV Equipment included: Digital screen – HDMI Connection, Renkus Heinz PA system ceiling speakers, Lectern, handheld, lapel microphones, Background music, Repeater screens
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Meeting Space Highlight: Auditorium
A gorgeous medium sized auditorium, this space is perfect for presentations, conferences and awards, and pairs so well with the Sky Lounge or Street Market for a pre or post talk bite. There’s a mezzanine level above which is one of a few accessible places to watch the event from. The seating itself is in a bench format that feels comfy even for longer events (we’re looking at you awards shows).
Location- Ground floor
Natural light: Yes
Reception: n/s
Theatre: 300
Cabaret: n/a
Classroom: n/a
Dinner: n/a
AV Equipment included: Digital screen – HDMI Connection, Renkus Heinz PA system 20 -30 ceiling speakers, Lectern, handheld, lapel microphones, Background music, Repeater Screens, InfraRed, Fixed stage lighting.
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Meeting Space Highlight: Event Space 2 & 3
As previously mentioned, these fantastically paired spaces have a partition wall that allows you to use one of the two spaces as a catering area or syndicate/breakout room. Event space two would be our pick for this with it only being able to house a maximum of 40 delegates compared to the larger Event Space 3 with capabilities up to 100. This could be used as an excellent post-conference space, as well as an area for training thanks to the versatile seating layouts. The rooms are a blank canvas that allow you to design them to however your heart desires, including for more heavily themed events, however the modern and industrial stylings of the room mean that it’s still a welcoming place to host your event without the dressing up. We imagined workshops in this room, maybe for a post talk walkthrough event with a key speaker for your company - it’s a good job there’s so many packages that allow you to combine all the wonderful assets available here.
Location: 1st floor
Reception: 150
Theatre: 100
Cabaret: 130
Classroom: n/a
Dinner: 130
AV Equipment included: Digital screen – HDMI Connection, Renkus Heinz PA system 20 -30 ceiling speakers
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Summary
It’s fair to say we’re massive fans of Unity Place, it’s such a friendly, welcoming event space while still being a pioneering force in the industry. This might just be one of the most forward-thinking venues in the industry - and we absolutely love it. A sustainable, serene sensational place to have your next event!
Speaking of… why not try a Christmas celebration event before the year is out. Unity Place offers full hire of Dipna’s restaurant and the Street Market from £45 per delegate! If you’re thinking of a place to host your company party - we can’t advocate more for the Sky lounge as a brilliant spit to watch the sun set, let drinks flow and mistletoe hang! The Sky lounge and Event space 1 are both available for exclusive hire, with festive bowls, crackers and drinks included, for £70!
You can also check out their virtual tour HERE