The organisers of National Electronics Week 2012 have announced that the 2012 event attracted 3,665 visitors – a very impressive increase of over 40% on the previous year. They credit some of the success to co-locating with other related shows, and plan to do the same in 2014.
Sadly there will be no National Electronics Week in 2013, although NEW will be running other smaller, regional events. Claire Saunders, Event Director, gave us the following reasons for skipping a year for the national event, and focussing on local shows in 2013:
- The UK electronics and embedded industry is such that it doesn’t seem to justify a standalone event – therefore the link with the shows this year has worked so well and offers the UK ‘manufacturing’ sector a strong platform with lots to see
- Although we have new products and developments our market doesn’t seem to be able to invest to the level it would at a German event for instance and we want our exhibitors to put on a ‘show’ and give visitors a must attend event every 2 years
- With this said companies still want to be in front of their audience – therefore moving away from the National format allows companies to invest little bits of their budget into local regions and get to interact with them on their home turf if you like
- Customers have time restraints so taking a good event and conference to them will help keep them up to speed with new technologies and not eat into too much of their time
It’s good the see that the strategy is driven by a wish to produce events that both visitors and exhibitors want – and will support with their attendance. Whilst some companies will doubtless miss the major event next year, I hope that the regional events will be a huge success and look forward to an even bigger and better national event in 2014.
