Unaudited figures reveal that The Meetings Show has seen an 11% increase in unique visitors and a 2.5% increase in hosted buyers as it welcomed close to 5,000 industry professionals for three days of business, networking and education between 14 and 16 June.
The 3,203 unique visitors included 845 hosted buyers from a wide range of agencies, corporates, associations, charities and the public sector.ย As part of the showโs growth it has also seen a 10% increase in UK based hosted buyers.ย Attendance at the Association Meetings Conference also saw an increase, with 105 delegates focused on the planning and management of association meetings attending the one-day conference.
โThis yearโs show has been a resounding success,โ comments Steve Knight, Event Director of The Meetings Show. โOver the course of the week the industry has clearly demonstrated its support for the show. We have seen a significant increase in attendance levels and in particular, engagement from the buyer community has been superb. Most importantly though, people were at the show to do business.ย Exhibitors saw a significant range and volume of enquiries, whilst the networking and education really allowed them to develop relationships and grow their knowledge.โ
Paul Szomoru from NewcastleGateshead Initiative said: โEvery time I have looked around the stand people have been having really good appointments and there has been some really good conversations. All of our partners have managed to promote themselves and the North East of England.ย We have seen lots of enquiries; we have been very, very happy with the people we have met, the conversations we have had and we will be going home with a really good number of enquiries that we hope are going to be confirming in the near future.โ
Ines Lebaek from Business Events Denmark commented: โIt has been brilliant; we have had very good enquiries and we are celebrating because today (Thursday) we have picked up an event for 4,000 people taking place in 2019 that is going to fill Copenhagen very nicely. It has been good because we have met existing clients and have been able to network with them whilst making contact with new people.โ
Steen Jakobsen from Dubai Business Events said: โIt is the biggest stand that we have had in the four years that The Meetings Show has been running and it has been really good for Dubai. We have had 18 partners with us and altogether we have had more than 350 meetings with hosted buyers, with good business flowing from that.ย We have seen so many strong enquiries and I think we will see many more in the coming weeks and months.”
Dana Lewis from AccorHotels said: โWe have had a really successful three days and weโve had lots of appointments on the stand. We have had a lot of UK and international buyers and the variety has been very good. We have had a lot of enquiries and our hotels have been very impressed in the quality of the briefs coming through.โ
Hosted Buyer Kim Biggs from Cisco said: โThere were a lot of suppliers that we use that you can easily touch base with that you donโt always have time for when working or travelling. Itโs great to come and meet new companies to gather information and come away with additional knowledge. The highlight is the organisation of the show. It has made my life very easy and simple โ from travel and accommodation to the website. There is no fuss โ I canโt fault it.โ
Keith Francis from The American Society of Church History attended as a hosted buyer and commented: โFor me The Meetings Show is useful because there are particular UK and European suppliers that don’t go to other shows. I had really good appointments where I learned about what the venues could do for my clients and Iโve been to three education sessions and I feel I can be better at my job as a result of going to those.โ
Organised by Centaur Live (a division of Centaur Media Plc), The Meetings Show is the premier event for the UK inbound and outbound meetings industry. The next event takes place 13-15 June 2017 at Olympia, London. Organised by meeting professionals for meeting professionals it is focused around a large exhibition, networking opportunities and professional education. Register your interest at themeetingsshow.com.
