EIBTM closed last Thursday with over 15,500 (8% increase on 2013) industry professionals onsite for the three days of the show. With over 80% of attendees (excluding exhibitors) coming from Europe, the trend underlines the American Express Meetings & Events 2015 Global Forecast presented to over 200 global industry thought leaders on the eve of the first day of the event. The report indicated that the number of meetings in Europe is predicted to increase.
At the same time, trade visitor numbers are also up by nearly 8%. EIBTM attracted nearly 70% of trade visitors from Spain supporting the country’s positive economic recovery which was highlighted in the same report. Some 78,436 pre-scheduled appointments and, for the first time, self select were made between Hosted Buyers and exhibitors, a 20% increase over last year.
Jim Hensley, CEO, Global DMC Partners; “EIBTM is the strongest and busiest show in our trade show calendar. We´ve had more appointments each day here than we have had in entire trade shows. The buyers we have seen have been good quality and most importantly ready to do business with proposals in place, rather than general enquiries. We are very optimistic about the future business we will place thanks to EIBTM.”
Finally from the close of this year’s show, EIBTM is to be rebranded as ibtm world – where connections mean everything. Ibtm world will join its sister events ibtm arabia, ibtm Africa, ibtm america, ibtm china and ibtm india under the ibtm events umbrella along with AIME in Melbourne and the recently announced ICOMEX in Mexico.
Announcing the new name for EIBTM, Graeme Barnett said; “We’ve emphasised the fact that it’s a global show. Whatever markets our clients are looking to connect with, we’ve got most of the globe covered”. Together the events in the newly branded ibtm portfolio annually provide access to more than 5,000 suppliers from 100 countries, 19,000 event organisers and more than 110,000 pre-scheduled meetings take place.
