AVS makes the grade (Events - Exhibitions)
Venuemasters reports a successful '09 Academic Venue Show with a 15% increase in visitors on '08.
The exhibition, which took place recently at the Emirates Stadium in London, saw over 400 visitors in attendance. More than 40 academic venues exhibited and promoted their facilities for a wide range of events.
Abigail Parkin (22 Jun'09)
Universities are spawning mini cities within their civic locations that go well beyond academia. Pleasant, spacious grounds and active campus refurbishment programmes make these institutions formidable event venues. For the event organiser this means high tech facilities for staging anything from blue-chip conferences to product launches.
The Academic Venue Show (AVS) provided a useful platform for academic institutions to present the versatility of their venues as students evacuate for summer to be replaced with an influx of delegates. RedKarpet elicited feedback from a selection of AVS exhibitors and vistors.
Rachael Bartlett, Head of Sales and Marketing - Warwick Conferences
"The
AVS was, once again, a roaring success for Warwick Conferences. A
thriving and busy show this year introduced us to a huge number of bona
fide conference and event organisers from a range of industry sectors
and backgrounds.
"Venuemasters do a sterling job in qualifying registrations to the show
which ensures visitors have a genuine requirement and avoids ‘selling’
to exhibitors. However, it was the quality of attendees that stood out for us."
"Our objectives included; introducing Warwick Conferences to people who were not aware of our products and services, gaining a good understanding of each visitor’s specific requirements and arranging and demonstrating how food can impact on an event's success.
"As part of the
Heart of England region Warwick Conferences took part in the taste
seminar session and brought along our Group Executive Chef, Graham
Crump to talk to visitors about the use of local produce and quality
food offerings. As such our theme for the show was based around our
food and we took along some Coventry God Cakes, locally produced
cheeses and chocolates which went down a storm!
"We will, without doubt, be exhibiting at the next AVS in 2010."
Jonathan Rhodes, Corporate Services Manager -City University London
"Our
aim was to promote our venues to event organisers and buyers, achieve
face-to-face selling opportunities and generating sales leads for our
university
"The footfall was good and better than in recent
years. Leads were increased for us too - some great leads which are
being followed up by my team.
"We were very well placed to
collar traffic on the corner of the London section and we used the show
to launch our new university brand, Conference Services at City
University London.
"I was hesitant at first about the new venue
but feel that the Emirates Stadium was a great venue with a really
great venue support team (at both Emirates and at Venuemasters).
"We
hope to return to the AVS next year. The Venuemasters team are great to
work with - so well organised. The AVS has always been important for
City University London, and not just because we are local to the
Islington area.
"City is one of the smaller London institutes belonging to the Venuemasters association, but as a small team of 5 we offer a bespoke service to our clients, and we offer a single point of contact to manage our customers’ needs. The AVS was the perfect platform to meet new prospects face-to-face and introduce them to City University London’s conference services and to the growing academic venues market."
Trevor Miller, Sales & Marketing Manager -
Leicester Conferences
"The show proved to be a great success for
Leicester Conferences at the University of Leicester. The event brings
together many academic venues that belong to the Venuemasters
consortium who exhibit for the day.
"The event had been held for
several years at the Business Design Centre, Islington so the move
brought some degree of apprehension as to how successful the change of
venue would be.
“The show for us was definitely a big
success regarding the quality and volume of enquiries received on the
day. We achieved well in excess of 50 good leads from customers
interested in Leicester Conferences and what we have to offer. This has
so far amounted to over £300,000 of potential enquiries with more still
being processed. Our ‘event organisers lost in the garden’ competition
was well received which offered players the chance of winning some
great local prizes including a luxury sports car driving experience.”
Other comments -
"An excellent show all round, plenty
of good information." Philip Bulmer, Emmanuel Centre
"In a busy world, an excellent opportunity to obtain information about so many potential venues for our meetings." Kevin Macan-Lind, Institute of Acoustics
"This is the best show we have attended for some time and we had some excellent enquiries." Nanele Lewis, Conference Services Manager, Swansea University
"This was one of our best shows; excellent people attending and a lot of genuine leads." Sian Fraser, Marketing & Sales Manager, York Conferences
Last word...
"The
move to a new venue gave us a chance to refresh the show and add some
new elements for 2009. These elements plus support from the exhibitors
helped to create a real buzz and the show’s success in the current
economic climate is something to celebrate. The appeal of academic
venues continues to gain momentum and visitor numbers at the event
highlights this." Terry Billingham, CEO, Venuemasters
