Tag: The Meetings Show

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The Meetings Show postponed until 19-20 October 2020

The Meetings Show has announced today that the exhibition, which was due to take place in June this year, has been postponed until 19-20 October. The venue is still London Olympia.

The show is looking at the format and whether it will have a virtual element, to attract buyers who aren’t able to attend in person. At the moment no-one knows what guidance will be in place for health and safety, social distancing, whether they will have to limit the numbers attending and have a one-way flow around the hall. How to deliver the educational element still hasn’t been decided.

The plan is for The Meetings Show to return to June dates in 2021.

Pulse Survey

Every two weeks, Northstar Meetings Group, owners of The Meetings Show, carry out a survey asking meeting planners what is happening. The latest Pulse Survey was carried out from 14-20 April 14 and 1,045 people participated. The full results are published on their website, but the key findings indicate that:

  • About 40% of organisers who are still working are currently sourcing and booking events and 36% percent are researching but not booking yet.
  • Meeting organisers are expecting to make significant changes to their events following COVID-19. They expect to organiser fewer events, particularly ones with a large quantity of attendees. However, some are saying that they will also organise fewer small events and some expecting more smaller events, although 35% think that it is too soon to speculate.
  • As a consequence, large venues will lose bookings and cruise ships will definitely see a decline.
  • 82% of organisers are thinking about using virtual platforms and use virtual site visits
  • There will be health and safety professionals on site, as well as guidance and education for attendees. New meeting room layouts, distancing measures, hand sanitizers and signage to reduce risk will become normal.
  • Business travel, reduced event budgets, possible reduced demand for face to face meetings will all be measures that need to be addressed.
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Global meetings and events industry set to converge at The Meetings Show

Meeting and event professionals from around the world will be coming together this week for two days of inspiration, education and networking at The Meetings Show, which is preparing for its biggest show to date.

Taking place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June at Olympia London, The Meetings Show will bring together more than 4,500 industry professionals, including over 700 exhibitors and more than 900 hosted buyers already signed up.

Following the hugely successful launch of a new two-day format in 2018, this year the show has seen significant growth in mid to long-haul destinations exhibiting, its education programme has been revamped with exciting new formats for sessions, and for the first time the show is offering dedicated initiatives to support young and up-and-coming talent in the industry.

To help you plan your visit, here are some of the highlights of The Meetings Show 2019.

Pre-Show Conference

Focus on this year being a sell out. A sell-out success in 2018, the Pre-Show Conference returns on Tuesday 25 June to offer exclusive educational opportunities to attendees of the three-day Hosted Buyer programme. Held this year at the Olympia Conference Centre, the conference will be opened with a keynote from one of the UK’s leading economists, Gerard Lyons, then followed with dedicated streams for agency, corporate and association buyers.

Hosted Buyer Welcome Reception

Hosted buyers will be getting into the swing of networking at the Tuesday evening Hosted Buyer Welcome Reception, taking place at hi-tech mini-golf venue Puttshack. Attendees will be able to vie for their place on the leaderboard for the night, while catching up with industry friends old and new ahead of the main show opening on Wednesday 26.

Inspiring exhibitors

With more than 700 hotels, venues, destinations and suppliers to the industry in attendance, visitors will be able to find all the inspiration they need for planning their next event. Walking the show floor, you’ll notice an increased international presence – 18% greater year-on-year – thanks to a whole host of new exhibitors, as well as many familiar faces from last year returning with bigger and better displays. You can see the full list of exhibitors here.

Engaging education

This year The Meetings Show is shaking up its education programme with sessions including expertise from outside of the industry and insight shared in a variety of unusual formats, including a courtroom trial, a dramatic performance and a live teambuilding pitch exercise. The Technology Tour will offer speed meetings with innovative suppliers and campfire sessions will provide the chance to participate in small-group discussions to get to the bottom of any burning issues.

Tomorrow’s Talent

The Meetings Show is celebrating and championing the rising stars of the industry with its Tomorrow’s Talent initiative. Launched in December 2018, Tomorrow’s Talent has sought out the 10 brightest under 30s from event agencies, associations, venues and suppliers to the industry to offer a platform for furthering their careers. The 10 winners will be in attendance at the show, and meeting with fellow event professionals at the MPI Foundation Cocktails for Charity event at 5pm on Wednesday 26.

The Future of Meetings

Once again, The Meetings Show in partnership with the Meeting Design Institute has selected the five most promising start-ups in the meetings technology sector to be shortlisted for The Future of Meetings Award. All five nominees will be exhibiting on the MDI stand and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 26 at 16:30.

The Meetings Show takes place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June at Olympia London. For more information and to register as a visitor, visit www.themeetingsshow.com/register. Join in the conversation and find out who else is attending by using the hashtag #MeetYouAtTheShow.

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8 reasons why EDGE Venues wants to #MeetYouAtTheShow

EDGE Venues is planning to make a big impact at this year’s Meetings Show, on 26th and 27th June at Olympia London.

The Meetings Show marks six months since EDGEvenues.com, innovative meetings technology, launched. And the team behind it has loads to share with show visitors.

Whether you’re an agent, a corporate or a venue, here are eight reasons why you should meet us at the Show:

1. Our technology

During our years of experience in the meetings and events industry, we’ve listened. We’ve listened to bookers and venues on what they needed to improve the simplicity of venue-finding. And we spent the last 18 months developing a new meetings platform that allows fast searches, intelligent comparisons and easy bookings everyone involved in the booking process. Want to know more? Then we’ll #MeetYouAtTheShow and show you first-hand how easy EDGE is to use.

2. See venues on the big screen

We’re going big at The Meetings Show – so big we’ve got a 86 inch screen to show you how great venues look on EDGE. And if you’re from a venue, we’ll go through your page with easy steps to improve your profile to achieve a spot in our 100% Club – because improving your searchability helps bookers match your property with their needs!

3. Central hub of information

New features, articles, venue news, special offers, commission deals, fam trips – and much more – are uploaded to EDGE Venues on a daily basis. So, it’s easy to find out what your favourite venue is doing, or with what’s happening across the industry. You can access many of the updates and all of our members’ amazing special offers by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Not only that, these offers are shown by city and destination – so pick your location and see what offers we have available there.

4. Be part of our booker prize draw

The Meetings Show wouldn’t be doing its job if there wasn’t a prize draw thrown in for visitors. Our first prize draw is for bookers (don’t worry venues, we’ve a got a treat in store for you as well), and it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t draw on the influence of our MD, Jacqui’s, to offer something with a real Irish Experience.

Dublin Weekend Experience for 2 to include:

Return Flights to Dublin from the UK.  2 nights bed and breakfast with a fabulous dinner each evening for 2 – with golf and lots of other treats at the wonderful 5 Star Carton House Hotel – sponsored by Visit Ireland and Carton House Hotel.

Visit our stand to enter and meet with our Irish friends to hear all about what Dublin and Carton House have to offer your event. 

5. Understand how to compare and share venues in your searches

One our key features is venue comparison and share options. Let us take you through some simple searches to compare some of your favourite venues. Then save and share this comparison with your colleagues or clients with a personalisation and your own insights on the venues offered. Whether you’re in need of a specific meeting room layout, or a hotel with capacity for overnight accommodation, our search function lets you easily compare your options. What’s more, where a venue has a special offer or a ‘buy it now’, it will be visible in the search so that you can take immediate advantage.  

6. Capture our destination knowledge

EDGE Venues is more than just a UK hub of venues, we’re global! We have profiles of more than 125 destinations over 45 countries. We’ll tell you the average flight time, the currency, whether Visas are required and how you can get value for money whilst you’re out there.

So why don’t you come and test our knowledge and let us show you how easy it is to find a venue in your chosen destination?  

7. Venues opportunity to win a fantastic prize

We promised that venues would also have the chance to win one of our fabulous prizes… Fancy winning a 3-night stay in Glen Cottage including one dinner for two people at Michelin star pub restaurant – The Olive Branch wand why not drop into the office and meet the Trinity / EDGE team on route whilst enjoying the delights of the Historic town of Stamford.

8. Meet the team behind the magic

We’re a relatively small team here at EDGE Venues, but we’re a team who is passionate about making a difference to the meetings and events industry. We always want to put a face to a name, so stop by stand D500 and let us show just how passionate we are and how we can help you make a difference to your bookings.

Our final call out to Agents/Corporates – Find out why EDGE Venues should be your first point of call for all meeting and event bookings – come and see us on stand D500.

Our final call out to Venues – Find out why you can’t miss out on the opportunity to showcase your venue to its maximum potential which will increase number of enquiries into your property – come and see us on stand D500.

Register for The Meetings Show here.

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Networking is key to success in events, The Meetings Show reports

A survey of meeting and event planners carried out by The Meetings Show has found that the majority of event planners think networking is vital in their jobs, with millennials valuing it the most highly.

Overall, 59% of participants in the survey regarded networking events as an important part of their job, but this figure rose to 85% among 18-30-year-olds, who cited making new contacts (80%) and raising their profile in the industry (71%) as the key reasons for attending.

While the younger generation clearly see the value in networking, the majority – 85% – were averse to attending on their own, preferring to go with a colleague or group of colleagues.

More experienced event planners were happier to go it alone, with over a third (36.4%) of 31-45-year-olds preferring to attend by themselves.

Motivations for attending differed among the older generations too, with generating new business leads and meeting with existing industry contacts and friends being cited as key drivers by more than 50% of respondents over 30.

The survey also looked at the logistics which make the ‘perfect’ networking event and found that midweek events were most popular, with 69% preferring events held on Wednesdays, while more than half (52.2%) said they would be willing to travel no more than an hour to attend an event.

When it comes to the format of events, paired or group activities was the most popular option, chosen by 53% of respondents, although for the 31-45 age group appointment-based networking was preferred, while for planners aged 46 and over, seat rotation at a dinner was chosen by 70%.

David Chapple, group event director of The Meetings Show, said: “Networking is one of the core pillars of The Meetings Show, and so we are always reviewing the way we facilitate networking to make sure it’s of the most benefit to our exhibitors and visitors. The findings of the survey have reinforced just how important it is, especially for younger event professionals looking to grow their networks and raise their profile within the industry.

“Walking into a room full of people you don’t know can be daunting, which is why this year we have introduced a new initiative specifically aimed at helping junior event planners. If they have a senior colleague who is attending the show as a hosted buyer, then on the second day of the show the junior colleague will be able to join them for all of their appointments, as well as having access to the hosted buyer lounge, for a less intimidating introduction to the industry.

“With networking at The Meetings Show being provided in a number of different formats, all either on the show floor or within easy reach of Olympia, we hope that all of our attendees will benefit from the opportunity to come together at the show.”

The Meetings Show

Throughout The Meetings Show, networking opportunities will take place in a variety of locations and formats, making it the ideal opportunity to meet new contacts as well as catch up with industry friends.

For hosted buyers, the networking will get off to a swinging start with the Hosted Buyer Welcome Reception on Tuesday 25 June. This year attendees will have the chance to tee off at one of London’s top alternative venues, Puttshack, where a friendly – or ever so slightly competitive – round of mini golf will help to break the ice.

When the doors open to the show on Wednesday 26, networking opportunities will be on offer throughout the show, including on-stand receptions hosted by exhibitors, a charity party hosted by MPI and dedicated networking for young event professionals.

Hosted buyers will also have exclusive chances to network in the Hosted Buyer Lounge at the show, and can apply to join post-show fam trips to the West Midlands, Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol or Paris to discover all the destinations have to offer on a fully-hosted tour, departing when The Meetings Show closes on Thursday 27.

For more information about The Meetings Show’s hosted buyer programme, which offers one, two and three-day attendance options, visit https://www.themeetingsshow.com/visit/hosted-buyer-programme.

The Meetings Show takes place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June at Olympia London. To register, visit www.themeetingsshow.com/register.

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The Meetings Show welcomes creative papers for 2019 education programme

The Meetings Show is calling on event professionals to get creative when submitting papers for its 2019 education programme.

Conference producer Erica Keogan will curate a large proportion of the show’s 50 hours of free educational sessions but industry experts and those with a passion for sharing their knowledge are also invited to put forward ideas for sessions.

The 2019 education programme will be centred around the event planning journey, covering everything from conception to legacy, and is designed to provide attendees with information on the latest trends and challenges, as well as exploring what may happen in the future.

Alongside suggestions for topics, Keogan, who first encouraged industry involvement last year, is calling for the most creative ideas for session delivery.

The show wants to encourage active learning in a variety of different formats, with no constraints when it comes to how sessions are delivered, what technology is used, where the sessions take place or who they are delivered by.

Keogan said: “We’re looking to tap into the talent and insight of meetings and events professionals to help create something really inspiring for our educational programme this year.

“We are calling for those submitting papers to think outside-the-box and come up with some inventive ways to deliver their ideas. We’d love to hear all your ideas, no matter how unusual or outlandish they may seem.”

Those looking to participate in the education programme when the show returns to Olympia London on 26-27 June for its seventh edition should provide a proposed title, which part of the event planning journey it relates to, and, in no more than 250 words, a brief synopsis of what delegates will discover by attending their proposed talk.

The proposal should include details of how the talk or informative session will be delivered. To submit a proposal, complete the application form online here .

Successful applicants may also be offered the chance to speak on a panel debate.