The ninth annual IMEX meetings trade show closed yesterday in Frankfurt, where IMEX Group Chairman Ray Bloom announced a laundry list of successful statistics. According to Bloom, this year's show welcomed nearly 9,000 attendees, including just under 3,900 European and long-haul hosted buyers.
"Results like these confirm that the IMEX model works, and works extremely well for exhibitors and buyers," Bloom said. "Both parties now appreciate the value of resources such as the diary and appointment system, the IMEX App with over 1,200 downloads, and the website which allow them to extract maximum business benefit from their time at the show."
Hosted buyers this year included representatives from companies from several sectors, including American Express, Citibank, Credit Suisse and Nomura International from finance and banking; Danone, Nestle, PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble from consumer products; Oracle, Cisco, SAP and Siemens from technology; Volkswagen AG, Renault and Bugatti Automobiles from auto; and Lilly, Merck and Pfizer from pharma.
Association buyers also were numerous, as evidenced by a record 300-plus hosted buyers attending Association Day, a one-day forum of education and seminars dedicated to association issues, which takes place one day prior to the show.
"Over 57,000 appointments have been made between buyers and exhibitors, including a record number of individual appointments," Bloom continued. "In the process of qualifying and planning those business appointments they also exchanged over 12,000 messages. The quality and breadth of our education program has become an increasingly important part of the IMEX experience for all our participants. We were pleased to see that during that period they saved 3,500 seminars and workshops into their diaries. This year, working alongside a variety of excellent partners and companies, we were able to present over 90 different educational events to help inspire and motivate industry professionals in their day-to-day work and challenges, as well as their long-term career ambitions."
Plans already are underway for IMEX 2012, which will be the show's 10th anniversary, and for the inaugural IMEX America trade show, taking place Oct. 11-13 in Las Vegas. "Next year is going to mark an important milestone for IMEX, and for the industry it supports and represents," Bloom concluded. "Of course, before we get that far, we look forward to seeing many of you at IMEX America in Las Vegas when we will commit to repeating the spirit, the camaraderie but most of all the results that you have come to expect from doing business the IMEX way."