Soaring Communications

Posts Tagged ‘Exhibition’

Tip-ex 2010, which took place from 27^th-29^th May was a great success for the organisers and demonstrated how as a town Harrogate can pull together and generate long term reward for a huge range of businesses.

HIC’s director, Stuart Quin “Economic changes over the last two years have impacted businesses of all sizes.  Where a town like Harrogate can work together to help a business facing tough times it is in our best interest to provide support and we look forward to welcoming Tip-ex back next year.”

Tip-ex, which is the UK’s only exhibition dedicated to the tipping industry was scheduled for 2009 but cancelled due to the recession.  Rather than impose heavy cancellation fees on an already beleaguered exhibition, HIC agreed to postpone the event, preserving long term revenues and ensuring the event’s success.

Despite the downturn in the economy and the cancellation of the 2009 show, more than 2,000 visitors attended, using a variety of the town’s business and leisure facilities, including hotels, restaurants and pubs.

One key factor of the event was the use of the Crescent Gardens – the council car park – for the spectacular display of several brand new tipper trucks.  Images of this have been and will continue to be used throughout the tipping industry, increasing regard for Harrogate as a world leading business tourism destination.

Quin continues: “Events like Tip-ex have a huge economic impact on Harrogate, providing revenues for businesses of all sizes.  Harrogate is a beautiful destination and the use of an outdoor space such as Crescent Gardens adds to the town’s superb business events infrastructure through the use of unusual spaces.  It has become more crucial than ever that the town works together to secure and keep these valuable business events – the ability to provide this, and other, outdoor space is an important element in the offering.”

The London City Selection, launched at International Confex in February, has forged a partnership with the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) to ensure all members are AIM accredited.

A board has also been formed to ensure the London City Selection continues to grow and develop.

Aim Accreditation

“If we are to promote the City of London as a leading events destination it is vital we back up our claims with credible qualifying criteria.  In a decision taken by our new board and current members it was agreed that the AIM accreditation scheme (the only accreditation scheme for the meetings industry and endorsed by VisitBritain) is the most appropriate for our purposes.”   London City Selection chair and Barbican business development manager, Samme Allen.

All current and new members of The London City Selection will be required to have the AIM Entry Level accreditation at the very least, which includes a code of practice, legal compliance and grading criteria.

Allen continues:  “The London City Selection’s key goal is to develop the City of London as a world leading destination for business events, meetings, conferences, exhibition and parties.  Accreditation demonstrates each venues commitment to excellence and ensures we are working together to provide the best possible standards across the whole membership.”

MIA, chief executive, Jane Evans: “Accreditation is vital for venues and destinations wishing to market themselves at the highest levels and AIM provides the perfect platform.  Our standards – from Entry to Gold, ensure we can reward venues throughout their development, growth and improvements.  It is very exciting to be working with a consortium such as London City Selection, which will also add further value to our newly formed Destination Group.

New board

In a further development, the London City Selection has created a board to oversee the destination’s development.  As a Barbican led initiative, the board will be chaired by Samme Allen, supported by:

Membership officers:    Ed Bolling (Ironmongers Hall)  Carol Anderson (The Mermaid)

Marketing officers:         Diane Waldron (HAC)  Jihane Mamouri (Crowne Plaza Shoreditch)

Events officers:                 Ros De Vekey (America Square)  Aimee Luxton (The Brewery)

Finance officer:                 Anthony Hyde (Barbican)

Partnerships officer:       Brendon Smith (etc. venues)

Nexus Collections annual sales trends report clearly shows an increase in customer referral based sales.

The review, now in its third year, breaks down the company’s annual sales of over 500,000 conference /promotional bags worldwide, identifying trends amongst key buyers in the MICE industry.

As the economic outlook declined and fears of recession  grew, referral based sales leapt from just 30% last year to a huge 52% share of Nexus’ business.

The increase pushed search engine / internet leads down to third place.

Exhibition sales (particularly International Confex) remained steady at 25%.

1. Referrals 52%
2. Confex 25%
3. Website/search engine 20%
4. other 3%

Nexus Collections, managing director, Nick Jones: “It is understandable that companies want to work with people  they trust during difficult times.  These figures clearly show a shift in purchasing tactics away from internet searches with their inherent focus on the cheapest option to a clear need for trust and reputation.”