Fresher’s Week Fairs: Promoting your business

An excellent opportunity comes around at the start of every September with Fresher's Fairs taking place across the country in literally 100+ universities and colleges.

Capturing students at the start of their studies at a time when their future consumer habits are affected significantly, for a business can mean great benefits in terms of branding. Banks and employment agencies have for years taken advantage of this form of marketing and there is also room for other exhibitors if you have something you can market and help students to benefit from.

Signing up for Fresher's Week Fairs is often quite easy. The University of Manchester for example offer a specific PDF with information for companies looking to market at their Freshers Fair (see their PDF).

Buying Display Kits and banner stands is one thing you might have to consider for your display at a Fresher's Week fair. These products can be bought very affordable and quite easily online. Overall exhibiting at Fresher's Week Fairs is certainly worth considering and compared to many other forms of direct marketing, this is a fairly cheap option.

Westcountry Wedding Show 2009

Exhibitions are rarer in the South-West, UK, than more central areas within the UK, but we are able to report that the West Country Wedding Show 2009 is set for Plymouth on September 20th, 2009. This event will bring the wedding trade and some tourism to the Devon area and is supported by the Plymouth Summer Festival organisers.

Taking place in Plymouth Pavilions (right on the edge of Plymouth City Centre) one of the highlights of this event will be the catwalk show which will promote the 2010 collections. You can also expect to see more than one hundred exhibitors covering every aspect of the bridal and wedding industry, including wedding dress suppliers, wedding car companies and travel companies offering honeymoons and weddings abroad.

A sample of companies already signed up exhibit and who you can meet and talk with for wedding and honeymoon advice includes:

• Drakes Fine Jewellers
• PB Gowns
• Nuffield Health
• Perrings Classic Cars
• Butterflies and Roses

You can find more information out about the West Country Wedding Show online. You can also find more information on getting to Plymouth online.

International Exhibitions Guide: China

There are several excellent exhibition venues in China and in the coming weeks a look at exhibiting in Beijing and some other major Chinese cities.

Guangzhou International & Exhibition Centre in Pazhou, China, is one of the biggest exhibition centres in the world. Located on Pazhou Island, near the Pearl River Delta, it was constructed to promote the exchange of international business, culture, finance and tourism. Beautifully designed, the venue has started to hosts some large events including the annual Guangzhou Fair - one of the largest import and export fairs in China.

Beijing Exhibition Centre opened in the 1950's, was Beijing's first major exhibition centre and it now covers over 700,000 square meters. The venue looks Russian in design and is now considered to be an important landmark in the city. For exhibitors and conference organisers, the exhibition centre has three East wing exhibition halls which are complemented by a single large hall in the West wing, a theatre and restaurant. Today, the Beijing Exhibition Centre has up to date facilities and state of the art AV systems in the theatre/cinema and is an excellent venue which hosts some of China's top exhibition.

Exhibition Stands Furniture and Flooring

Exhibition Furniture & Flooring - A number of questions have been coming in about where and how to get furniture and flooring for exhibition stands. Getting the accessories, furniture and flooring to perfectly finish off your stand design can really make a difference in the eyes of visitors to an exhibition.

There are many options available for exhibition flooring and furniture and some items certainly worth remembering to plan for are:

• Exhibition tables
• Seats, stools or chairs
• Carpeting
• Extra counter space (if needed)

With a good exhibition company you should be able to buy or organise the furniture and flooring with the stand/s. Clip Ltd for example offer a variety of Exhibition Services which includes Exhibition Flooring and Furniture.

PURE London 2009

Apart from the main fashion shows such as London Fashion Week and some other shows such as Sun & Swim 2009, PURE is one of the main fashion and design shows in the UK exhibitions calendar.

This year's PURE London event takes place in only a few weeks time, at the Olympia Exhibition centre between the 2nd and 4th August (inclusive). As with previous shows, the event will provide a daily fashion show as the central highlight and some of the main fashion companies and also some new designers will be highlighted on the catwalk. Expect to see some well-known models participating in the show; a show which attracts some big business during the 3 days.

For those of you interested in the seminars, there are some excellent ones planned again this year with titles set to include:

• Fashion and how to maximise online sales.
• Future trends in the fashion industry.
• Ethical fashion planning.

You can visit the PURE London site for more information and also to apply for tickets for the event. You can register for free entry via the site.

Warwickshire Exhibition Centre (Venues Guide)

The latest in our Exhibition venues guide series takes us to Warwickshire, UK for Warwickshire Exhibition Centre.

Located just over 10 miles from Coventry (between Birmingham, Northampton and Gloucester) the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre is a fairly news venue and one which is gaining a good reputation. In the last year the venue has signed up some good exhibitions including the:

• International Living History Fair
• International Model Boat Show
• Little Monster Baby and Toddler Show

With over two thousand square metres of exhibition space and an additional outdoor exhibition area, this venue can hold fairly sizable exhibitions. The disadvantage of this venue is that it is not located right next to a major airport such as the London, Edinburgh and Birmingham Exhibition centres. On the plus side though, the venue offers free parking and congestion is less than the bigger cities and the venue cheaper to rent. As an attendee to an event at this venue, the location in terms of the UK is also very central.

The venue is very close to Leamington Spa and this offers a pleasant location for staying in, if you need to spend 2 or 3 days attending the exhibition venue for an event. You can learn more about the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre online.

Summer Exhibitions: Sun & Swim 2009

One of the shows each summer which is always fun to attend and which focuses on the sun and summer activities is here again - the Sun & Swim Show. This year's show takes place at Harrogate Exhibition Centre in Northern England and is scheduled for the 16th, 17th and 18th August.

The Sun & Swim Show has now been combined with the Lingerie Show to make one exhibition under one roof for the trade. This show has now become the leading trade event in the UK for lingerie and swimwear and this is thus now an important industry event.

At this year's event you can expect to see a lot of major labels and suppliers with some names who are signed up to attend including:

• Banana Moon
• Cottonreal Lingerie
• Independent Fashions
• Panache
• Simply Stunning 4 U

This show used to be solely based in London at the Olympia Exhibition Centre and now it seems largely to have moved to Harrogate. As a result of this you can expect to see 'London Fashion Week' but in the Harrogate Centre.

Tickets: You can register online to get tickets for the show and for any other information regards the show you can contact Joanna Puckett (Exhibition Coordinator) on Telephone: 020 7973 4670.

International Event Management courses

Several enquiries come in asking about courses in Exhibition and Events Management courses and the good news is that there are some excellent courses within the UK.

In past posts we have mentioned some courses including:

• Plymouth University - BSc Events Management degree course.
• Degree courses in Leeds and Birmingham.

The University of Surrey is another UK university who now also offer courses in Exhibition and Events Management. The university offers various choices incuding at MSc, PGDip and PGCert levels. To apply for the course you need already to have a Bachelors Degree, although work experience in some instances is accepted instead.

For the full MSc course the training lasts for 12 months and starts September 2009 for the next intake. If you are interested in learning more or in applying for the course then you can contact Dr Donna Chambers or the admins office via:

Telephone: 01483 683076 or email: pg-enquiries@surrey.ac.uk

Exibition Venues Profile: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

In the Northern part of the UK, there are some excellent exhibition venues in Scotland, such as the SECC (Scottish Exhibition Centre and Aberdeen Exhibition centre), but between Scotland and Manchester, there are few venues of note.

In Newcastle though there is a smaller venue which can be used by exhibition organisers and this is the Metro Radio Arena (SatNav: NE4 7NA and Telephone: 0844 493 4567). The Metro Arena admittedly is used more so as a concert and live performance venue, with performers such as Elton John, Tom Jones and UB40 playing there. The Metro Arena is still though perfectly suited to exhibitions and has facilities to cater for this.

With the largest Exhibition Facilities in the North-East, England and with almost 4000 sqm of exhibition space, the venue can hold sizable exhibitions. The venue is also able to offer:

• Six hundred and fifty parking slots
• An exhibition support team
• Catering facilities
• I.T. support

The locality to Newcastle International Airport and the connections with the rail Metro system make the venue practical also for international attendees. You can learn more about the venue via Metro Radio Arena Exhibitions.