Futuresource exhibition space now 75% sold

It's been a busy week here and a sudden rush of bookings has taken us to three-quarters sold.  One of the latest exhibitors to confirm is newcomer Volvo.
Volvo says it will use its stand at the show to help promote its complete range of municipal-focussed chassis, mainly from its lighter-weight FL and FE ranges, plus its new UK-specific 26-tonne low-entry cab - the FE LEC - launched last month.
As their Marketing & PR Director, Amanda Hiatt, says, “This year Volvo is keen to secure a 10% share of the refuse collection market with our new FE low-entry cab and we see this event as the ideal showcase to help us achieve it.”

Futuresource announces co-location with the Public Procurement Show

Following feedback from last year’s event about attracting more visitors from local authorities, we’ve teamed up with Guardian News and Media who are co-locating their Public Procurement Show alongside Futuresource.

Basically what that means is that our shows will be side by side and linked by two crossover points. Visitors will be able to register for either show and their badge will be valid for both events, which will give them access to more solutions and more seminars. Exhibitors should benefit from increased visitors as we’ll be promoting the Public Procurement Show and Guardian News and Media will be promoting Futuresource.

We’re all very excited about this development and we’ll be publishing a new floor plan shortly so you can see how we’ll sit together at ExCeL. If you want to read a bit more about it, check out the press release.

Take a look at the Public Procurement Show’s website too?

We’re blogging! Keep up with the latest Futuresource news.

Well, welcome to Futuresource’s first ever blog post!  It’s been an eventful few months following Futuresource 2009 and we’ve got so much exciting news to tell you about.

We weren’t sure what the best way was to get the message out to everyone who’s been asking about what’s happening but after a few discussions, we hit on the idea “why not write a blog?”.  We thought that instead of producing a “newsletter” every so often, it would be much more useful for everyone to learn about what’s going on as soon as we’ve organised it.  Hopefully you’ll think so too.

So, latest news… 

Since the last event closed its doors in June 09, we’ve been doing lots of research: talking to visitors, exhibitors and delegates to understand how we can improve Futuresource.  Whilst 2009 went extremely well for our launch with increased attendance of 30%, there were some things we didn’t get quite right and we need to improve.  Unfortunately we couldn’t do much about the tube strike but we did try by putting on coaches from key stations.  Needless to say Bob Crow wasn’t the most popular person in the office last year and we all had a bit more grey hair (or less hair!) at the end of it.

One of the things we are really focussing on for 2010 is looking at how we can build a better networking community around the event.  We’re currently working on several ideas to help this including speed networking at the Futuresource conference and a networking evening on Wednesday night on the show floor between 17.00 and 19.00 as well as the Futuresource & Valpak Gala Dinner on Tuesday 15 June.  We’ll update you on the details when we’ve organised it all.

Seminar areas within the trade fair are also getting an overhaul.  Last year featured a Transport Hub which didn’t work very well so we’re currently putting together an improved programme of over 60 free 20 minute seminars which will be announced around Easter time.  We have partnered with the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and the Energy Institute (EI) to deliver some seminars on a wider range of topics.

You also told us that although you liked being undercover and out of the rain, you missed the demonstration areas.  With this in mind, we are working on an interactive demonstration area featuring electric and hybrid plant/vehicles which will be located in the Vehicle and Plant Zone.

For those of you interested in the Futuresource conference programme, we have a general theme of “more from less”.  The programme will be launched at the end of January and instead of having multiple streams, has one stream per day which will focus more specifically on areas such as the European picture and partnership working across different sectors.

Last year some of you commented that you didn’t like the Platinum Suite as a conference venue as it had no natural daylight, was too separated from the trade fair and was also a bit chilly.  Bearing this in mind, we’ve moved the conference to ExCeL’s South Gallery for 2010 which has stunning views over the dockside and a warm and sunny outlook (plus good blackout blinds when needed!).  This also means you will overlook the Futuresource trade fair and will easily be able to visit during breaks or at the end of the day.

That was a bit of a long update but I’m hoping you found it useful.  Let us know what you think.  There will be more updates shortly as we have load of new developments in the pipeline – watch this space.