Square Meal digested (Reviews)
Square Meal’s Venues & Events, the corporate events exhibition, reported its 19-20 September '07 show at Old Billingsgate to be its most successful to date.
Organisers announced
an increase in attendance of over 23% to 6142 visitors (pending ABC
audit) claiming that this made the exhibition more popular than both
RSVP & the National Venue Show.
"We're delighted that Square Meal's Venues & Events 2007 exhibition has received such a positive reaction in its third year from both visitors and exhibitors," says Square Meal marketing manager, Rachel Curran."The show has gone from strength to strength to give visitors all the corporate event ideas and contacts they need under one roof."
RedKarpet took feedback from a selection of exhibitors industry-wide.
What they said...
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL CANARY WHARF Sam Riches, Sales Manager
"We
were aiming to increase awareness of Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf’s
function space and thought the Square Meal exhibition would be a great
place to showcase the hotel.
"Our expectations were greatly exceeded as we actually confirmed a piece of business that generated three
times the amount spent on the exhibition, within the first week following the show. The Square Meal event was very well organised and all our needs were catered for.
"We will definitely exhibit at Square Meal again next year, but next time, possibly with all three Four Seasons Hotels ; London, Canary Wharf and Hampshire."
BRITISH AIRWAYS LONDON EYE Lisa Hatswell, Corporate Sales Manager
"British Airways London Eye was delighted to exhibit for the third time at the Square Meal Venues & Events show.
"During
the two days we received over 300 enquiries from a wide variety of high
calibre existing and prospective clients. It was also a fantastic
opportunity to showcase our 2008 Christmas packages.
"Not only did we distribute 
a
great number of Christmas brochures but we also hosted a tasting of our
mulled wine and Christmas finger food for clients. This was provided by
our catering company, Simply Gourmet.
"Clients were very pleased to see that we could assist them with bookings from two to 800 plus, demonstrating the London Eye's versatility for all kinds of events. They also saw a selection of hospitality packages on board the London Eye."
TUTANKHAMUN
Alex Immink, Sales Manager, Cavendish Hospitality
2Square Meal went very well for us. Our intentions were pretty straight
forward;
to advertise and promote Tutankhamun to London's leading finance and
legal quarters. There was a good attendance and a healthy number came
to our stand and expressed genuine interest in our corporate programme.
"Aided by the use of a barcode zapping device we
were able to record visitors' company details while discussing the
many corporate event opportunities open to them. We generated over 300
contacts in one day and many of them are now
coming to our exclusive Tutankhamun preview on 12th November."
LAUNCH PAD EVENTS David Stringer, MD
"Everyone
at Launch Pad looks forward to Square Meal with great anticipation. In
our opinion it has already become the "must attend" show for the
corporate events market. For 2007 we secured possibly the best
location by the central staircase and were able to express our
creativity with a space only stand – and the return of our life- size
purple and orange flocked cow!
" Although we were down on our previous year's large Christmas Party enquiries we received a huge amount of interest for shared evenings.
"We
found the number and quality of visitor to be excellent with several
£100K+ enquiries, one of which has already progresses to a final
presentation stage. Undoubtedly we will return for 2008."
CONGRESS CENTRE Ruby Lyall, Conference & Sales Manager
"We
decided to exhibit at Square Meal's Venues & Events exhibition
again this year because one of our core objectives is to increase
awareness of Congress Centre among event organisers looking for a
large central London
conference & events venue.
"Congress
Centre has been proving a popular choice with an increasing number of
blue-chip clients such as Microsoft, Sainsbury's, John Lewis and
Barclays since our comprehensive refurbishment. 
"Our
new exhibition stand was well received and over the course of the show
we generated a high number of quality new business leads from agencies
and corporate clients. We have since followed these up by email and
know that
over 60% of them went on to visit the Congress Centre website
and we have already arranged a number of site visits as a result. We are very pleased with the overall outcome."
ADDISON LEE Fiona Atherton, Marketing Manager 
"We were overwhelmed by the general interest in Addison Lee and the positive feedback that we
received regarding our service.
"Square Meal generated a number of
positives; good, quality sales leads, new accounts, brand awareness and
it informed potential customers of our other services i.e. coach and
minibus services.
"Overall, the Square Meal event was a great success and all our objectives were achieved. We would definitely consider doing this event again next year."
RK ______________________________________