Saint-Étienne’s name has long been promoted by its famous football club, but things are about to get even more exciting: the capital of the Forez region is fast becoming a trendy, modern city thanks to the number of facilities recently added to its assets. With an established reputation for the excellent exhibitions organised by the city’s Musée d’Art Moderne, just a year ago the fabulous Norman Foster-designed Zénith opened for business. And on 1st October, Minister of Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand, joined Jean-Jack Queyranne, President of the Rhône-Alpes region, and Maurice Vincent, the city’s mayor, to open the Cité du Design.

Set within the walls of the former weapons factory, which has been beautifully renovated, the building boasts 16,000 m² of space. It houses the École Supérieure d’Art et Design, which has 350 students on its books, and ideally will fulfill its vocation to kick start the economy by creating links between companies, designers and creators, explains Christophe Imbert, PR director at the Cité du Design. We share the space and facilities with the school, including a 300-seat auditorium and three meeting rooms for between 50 and 100 people, all of which can be hired out to external clients as long as their presence does not upset the day-to-day running of the school . In order to manage such bookings, the Cité du Design works with Espace Fauriel, the city’s conference centre, which can also make use of this new facility to push Saint-Étienne to the front of the business tourism destination ranks.

The auditorium’s preferred aim is to attract conferences that have a design theme. However, the venue’s only disadvantage is the absence of any space for receptions – a necessity for any self-respecting meeting – but this should be rectified from June 2010 with the addition of a catering area, including snack bar, brasserie and gastronomic restaurant operated by local Michelin-starred chef Stéphane Laurier.

In the meantime, we’re pointing out to clients that whilst we can host them here for their meetings, they have to organise any receptions or cocktail parties at the Grand Cercle or the ‘Espace Fauriel , adds Christophe Imbert. Prices for a meeting room at La Cité du Design start at 450 € (inc VAT) per day.