Our industry celebrates diversity – but demands consistent quality.

EIBTM Barcelona, 2009
Industry proves
“resilient”
The organisers of the EIBTM Barcelona,
which took place early December 2009
in Fira Gran Via, report the biggest
number of hosted buyers so far in their
21-year history.
Mandy Torrens, EIBTM
Exhibition Director,
says the 21st edition of the
show, which took place December
1 to 3, 2009 in Barcelona’s
Fira Gran Via, notched
up more hosted buyers and
prearranged appointments
than ever before. Provisional
figures show 3,791 hosted
buyers, an increase of two KA
percent year-on-year. During
the three days of the exhibition
54,255 pre-scheduled appointments
were registered,
marking growth of four percent.
All in all, Mandy Torrens expects
attendance to have
breached the 8,000 mark.
“These numbers show us not
only how resilient the meetings
market is in these challenging
times but also what a
good reputation the EIBTM
enjoys as a meeting point for
business, education and networking,”
she insists.
More than 3,000 attendees
were counted at the training
and education programmes in
the course of the EIBTM. Besides
representing growth of
15 percent, this also makes
the EIBTM the biggest gathering
for MICE industry education
in Europe, Mandy says.
With participants from 24
countries, including Russia,
Israel, the USA, Sweden,
Chile and China, the Association
Programme can certainly
also be described as international
and cosmopolitan,
she adds. She cites expansion
of the Spanish education programme,
with ten events and
speakers from the APCE,
MPI, the Malaga Convention
Bureau, Viajes Iberia Congresos,
the Oviedo Congress Palace
and the Le Meridien Barcelona,
as a particularly successful
element, saying that
the initiative had a highly posi-
tive effect on the number of
Spanish-speaking visitors to
the show.
Torrens also speaks of positive
reactions from exhibitors.
“It was the best EIBTM for us
so far; we will very probably
better the previous year’s figures,
when we took inquiries
worth a total of £ 52 million.
We organised three familiarisation
trips with buyers from
North and South America and
from Norway. In terms of our
marketing strategy the
EIBTM plays an absolutely vital
role,” one exhibitor from
Visit London is quoted as saying.
Another exhibitor, the Sandton
Convention Centre in
South Africa, speaks of more
”Absolutely
vital role”
EUROPE
premium-quality conversations,
notably from the association
segment. During the
show specific inquiries are
said to have been received for
events worth anything between
£ 3 and 5 million.
The exhibitors from New York
City report more pre-scheduled
appointments at the
EIBTM 2009 than ever before.
They have taken part in the
show since its inception and
will be on board again next
year.
However, the subjective impression
is that not all exhibitors
shared this view. Looking
at the seating arrangements
dotted strategically
throughout the exhibition hall,
one could not help but feel
that an attempt was being
made to conceal empty exhibition
space. Mandy Torrens
did not, incidentally, say anything
about the number of exhibitors.
KA
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