Press Cuttings Transcripts
Comment
Conference & Exhibition Fact Finder, 01 April 2004
Hard on the heels of the 20th outing of the International Confex, this month we
look forward to two more shows which are important to the industry: Incentive
World – the promotional, marketing and incentive event; and Venuemasters – the
academic venue show. Early signs are that both shows are looking to achieve
record numbers of visitors and impact, and, judging by the new features that
have been introduced to each event, this optimism seems to be well placed.
Incentive World, now the centrepiece of National Incentive & Motivation
week, is entering its 9th year of operation. Promotional marketing, commonly
described as a £20billion industry, is increasingly popular with businesses of
all kinds, and the aim of the ‘week’ is to increase the profile of incentives,
promotions and motivation and highlight the benefits that succesful programmes
can deliver.
It’s always good to see particular sectors of the industry thriving in this way,
as it suggests that, overall, an improvement in business conditions is
registering across the board. Academic venues may once have been labelled
‘cheap and cheerful’ for all the wrong reasons, but nowadays, our seats of
learning can still, by and large, claim to be good value for money. They also
offer so much more in terms of added value and in the quality of the facilities
available. A complete round-up of the developments taking place around the
country can be found in our annual academic venues feature, also in this issue.
This month, we also bring news on the developments taking place in London, the
gateway into the UK for many business travellers. The Mayoral Commission,
created to assess the viability of a new International Convention Centre in the
capital, now has a chairman in place and a preliminary report is expected
within a year. If it achieves nothing else, maybe the Commission’s report can
finally lay to rest once and for all the ‘conference centre’ debate. There are
clearly arguments for and against a new centre, as well as key, related issues
like location, transport and funding. It seems to me that, in recent years, the
industry has preferred to talk around the subject, rather than talk about it
head on. Now we have our chance to address the real issue and not the urban
myths that have grown up around it. It looks like being an exciting time ahead.