Confex Attempts to Manage Costs for International exhibitors

Confex Group portfolio director Jonny Sullens has asked international exhibitors to give Confex one more chance following its move to ExCeL next year. He said that past exhibitors who had been disappointed with the show would “find it a completely different proposition.”

“It’s about return on investment, we understand that and it is down to us to prove it,” he said. “We know we still need more domestic buyers that place international business and we’re working on that. Next year we may partner Visit Britain or a hotel group for the hosted buyer programme.”

He added that UBM Live, which organises the show, could offer exhibitors financial support to help them make the move: “We can help with things like stand build costs; when you buy your stand we’ll put a floor and power in. We can help people get the best value flights into City Airport and we’ve block booked all the hotel rooms at ExCeL. We’ll do everything we can to help people manage these costs.”


Jonny Sullens, UBM - who organise Confex

Sullens said he was expecting visitor figures to this year’s show, which took place 1-3 March at Earl’s Court, would be down.

“We actively discouraged students from attending, limiting it to 250, who could only come on the Student Day,” he said. “The exhibitors have fed back to me that there’s less time wasters on the show floor this year and that’s important. We were disappointed with attendance at the Association Day, but we know what we need to do to make it better."

He added that exhibitors ‘would be mad’ to not do Confex in 2012 – the year of the Olympic Games. “We’ll be getting a lot of attention,” he said.


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