…AS TREVOR LEAVES INFORMA GROUP
Ipex 2018 is scheduled to take place from 19 to 24 March 2018 at the same ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London just as exhibitors and organiser – Informa Group hailed the six-day London print event a total success.
The new-look Ipex afforded exhibitors to achieve significant sales from over 23,000 visitors that attended the event. “We’re really pleased and the anecdotal feedback is that visitors have been delighted by what they saw. And if you take into account what the show has been through in the past couple of years, then it’s even more satisfying that it all came together,” said Event Director – Trevor Crawford who leaves Ipex after a successful over 14 year stint with Informa Group.
While the number of attendance is substantially down on the 50,000 who attended Ipex 2010, the 2014 geographic split of 54% UK visitors and 46% international was broadly in line with 2010’s numbers. “The reality is that we’ve gone down from a 50,000sqm net footprint to 15,000sqm, so naturally you will have a lower footfall. This is why I think you can’t compare this Ipex to previous shows, and that’s why we’re treating it as a new launch, and with that in mind we’re really happy with the numbers,” said Crawford.
“Visitor engagement with the content programme has been one of my personal highlights,” he added.
From the summer of 2012, when HP and Heidelberg withdrew from the event, the show was blighted by a 12-month-long domino effect of exhibitor withdrawals. However, in the run-up to the March event, as confidence returned to the sector, so did a number of manufacturers with the show ending up with around 400 exhibitors, compared with the 1,000 that exhibited at Ipex 2010. Crawford said that senior representatives of many of the vendors that withdrew from this year’s show had visited ExCeL.
“I hope that they liked what they saw in terms of the new format and the content, and I’m hopeful that we will continue that positive dialogue with them over the next two or three years,” he said.
While it was evident that many exhibitors had scaled back their stand footprints in line with their paid deposits, according to Crawford the fact that some of the major exhibitors had taken smaller stands was a positive reflection of the changing attitudes to exhibitions.
“It’s not about size; exhibitors have realised that you don’t have take a football pitched-sized, double-decker gin palace to come out with ROI and I suspect that a lot of the larger companies will look back at this year’s show and think: we did it on a smaller budget and achieved everything we set out to do.”
Trevor Crawford who will be leaving Informa Exhibitions and his position as Ipex 2014 Event Director has been with the Informa Team for over 14 years and has played a major role in the development of Ipex during the past four cycles. Says Peter Hall, Managing Director of Informa Exhibitions, “We would like to thank him for his dedication and commitment,”
Trevor Crawford comments: “I have been at the heart of the print and packaging industries for 20 years and have enjoyed a rich and varied career in these fascinating and fast changing communities; originally as Publishing Director of Printing World, British Printer and Packaging Week and more recently in my role with Informa. It has been a privilege to develop Ipex over four consecutive events, but at this point in my career I am looking forward to the fresh challenge that will come from delivering events in different sectors.”
