The exhibition featured a well received seminar programme across the three days. Popular speakers and topics included Lord Shaftesbury talking about transforming his estate into an event space, Mumsnet co-founder Carrie Longton and Lollibop organisers Continental Drifts giving tips on how to engage families at events in 'The F Factor' and experiential agency RPM sharing the Five Rules of Engagement that should be considered for all experiential activity.
Rory Sloan, head of production at RPM and IOEX speaker commented, "I enjoyed visiting and speaking at this year's IOEX. Events cover such a broad range of disciplines and as an agency we operate in a number of these different sectors. As a result, I'm all in favour of the convergence of trade shows that cover different sectors of our industry. IOEX worked really well alongside International Confex and arguably injected a bit of fun that was missing from last year's show. I look forward to seeing how they can improve on it for next year."
The exhibition is designed to sit alongside sister show International Confex, to evolve the audience in line with the changing UK event landscape to include production companies and outdoor events.
Terry Yoell, director at Ten By Fifteen and IOEX exhibitor said, "Our industry is meant to be creative and pushing the limits to excite people with dynamic content at exhibitions. We had a great response to our mezzanine structure which was a central feature of IOEX providing a bird's eye view of the whole show. The show was fantastic for a first year."
Mark Gordon, sales director of IOEX explained, "IOEX has had a fantastic start, it has been great to see the industry get so behind the concept, reaffirming our research stating that this is a show that the industry wants and needs. It has been great to see the industry behind the concept and there is a willingness to make it work from both the exhibitors and visitors.
"We have had some great feedback from everyone involved which it is now our job to act on. From the very beginning we developed this show in line with industry feedback and all the indicators are saying that this is a show that will continue with a long legacy."
(Jim Evans)
