International Confex, Europe`s leading annual forum for the meetings, events and corporate hospitality industry has…
International Confex, Europe`s leading annual forum for the meetings, events and corporate hospitality industry has once again delivered a quality visitor audience for the 2003 show – 76 percent of visitors were of managerial level or above which is a 14 percent increase when compared to 61 percent at the 2002 show.
Visitor profile improved because 25 percent of those attending hold an annual events budget of over half a million pounds – an increase on the 22 percent that held budgets of that size last year, and 80 percent of visitors approve or influence that budget – compared to 71 percent last year.
There have also been some subsequent changes to the Confex team and organization which will benefit the 2004 show. Jessica Blue has been appointed as Event Manager and she will be taking over the helm from Paula Lorimer who has left to have her baby. Jessica is an experienced event manager who started her career at CMP by joining the Confex team in 1997. Since then she has been responsible for the GeoSolutions event and for the successful launch of GeoNorth in the IT and Games Division.
International Confex event manager Jessica Blue said Feedback from our exhibitors revealed that visitor quality at this year`s event was higher than ever: our on-site research now confirms their views. This vindicates our marketing strategy for the event because the focus of our Privilege Club and marketing campaign is to attract and delivery high quality visitors for our exhibitors. Having said that, we were very pleased with the level of visitor numbers in the current climate.
Pre-registration conversion was at its all time highest at 49 percent – indicating to us that our re-branding was well received and our pre-show marketing really worked! 2003 also saw the successful launch of our Confex Privilege Club. Five percent of our visitors came from overseas and we will be building on this success again to bring quality buyers to the 2004 show.
BACD executive director Tony Rogers said International Confex 2003 demonstrated its importance and resilience by delivering a quality show with high quality buyers at a time of almost unprecedented global political and economic turbulence. The Privilege Club also made a very encouraging start and has laid the foundations for further development in 2004.
Wembley (London) Limited, director of sales and marketing Peter Tudor said Once again Confex has proved to be a cost effective investment and has allowed us to exceed our target for generating leads. Many visitors from blue chip companies have made specific enquiries for events they are planning, and we are confident that a significant number of leads will be converted into business.
VIP visitor – Dr Sen of the Brunei Development Corporation said A world beating show run by top, clever, brilliant people. A wow of a performance – completely terrific
On-site figures also state:
- International Confex 2003 attracted a total audience of 12,856 of which 8,000 were trade visitors and 4,856 exhibiting personnel.
- There were 488 exhibitors (main stand holders) with around 1,200 exhibiting companies.
- 5% of visitors were from overseas.
- 42% of visitors said their core job function was in event organisation.
In a separate move, International Confex has also been brought under CMPi`s Ben Greenish, who now has responsibility for both Travel Trade Gazette and International Confex – thus allowing CMP to enhance the synergy between these two relates brands. All of CMP`s UK events have also been united in one division under Paul Thandi. Paul, Executive Director at CMPi has many years experience on Confex as a past event director and has been actively involved in building Confex into the successful event it is today. Confex will now benefit from greater dedicated resources and is positioned for further long-term success.
International Confex is ABC audited. The ABC figures for the 2003 show will be available later this month.
International Confex 2004 will be held on 24th – 26th February 2004 at Earls Court 1 London.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
