The first Sourcing City LIVE! Show has been heralded as a great success by professional distributor visitors and supplier exhibitors alike.
The event featured 116 top industry suppliers meeting with invited professional distributors from across the UK & Ireland. Prior to the event, distributors were able to pre-book appointments with key suppliers they wished to spend time with, other guests chose to simply walk the floor meeting with new and existing suppliers. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed with purposeful conversations through the show hall.
Professional distributor VIPs & Guests gathered from all around the country for SC LIVE! at the FIVE Show Centre in Farnborough. Some companies brought their complete sales and administration teams, from others just senior personnel attended. The show organisers commented that: “Many said before leaving that they would be bringing their entire teams next year.”
The collective spend of the distributor companies in the hall exceeded ?220m, which represented around 30% of the entire UK market spend. Sourcing City research surprisingly shows that 72% of the entire market spend is done by just 340 professional distributor companies in the UK & Ireland.
Alistair Mylchreest, CEO at Sourcing City said: “For a first show the quality of professional distributors attending was extraordinary. We totally believe in ‘quality above quantity’, and were delighted that professional distributors showed that they support our desire for events purely for the professionals in the market. We have many reasons to be quietly confident that many other professional distributors and top suppliers will join us next year.”
Prior to the show, 1700 pre-booked appointments were made. Over the 2 days these appointments took place, in addition to many hundreds of additional relaxed and focussed ad-hoc meetings. The evening Party Night provided guests and exhibitors with a further opportunity to informally network.
Richard Pettinger of Ignite Group commented; “Many congratulations on another hugely successful event, absolutely brilliant. Organised as usual with your superb attention to detail. Excellent helpful staff and a great selection of key suppliers.”
The show was opened with talks to a large enthusiastic audience from Simon Weston OBE, and Matthew Cohn, Vice chairman of ASI from the USA. Guests and exhibitors enjoyed free food & sweets throughout the day, and coffee & refreshments were delivered to the stands by the ‘Roving Tea Trolley’ teams. The free crepes and smoothies in the afternoon were also very popular. Guests leaving after 3.30pm were given a ‘Late Leavers’ thank you gift of a bottle of champagne and box of Thorntons Chocolates.
The evening Party Night was held at Princes Hall Theatre in Aldershot, and featured entertainment from Stavros Flately, Michael Bubl? & Robbie Williams Tribute Acts, The Ambassador Band and a lively Games Zone.
James Biggin of Steel City Marketing said: “A great event as usual. The meetings were excellent, and the lack of mad rushing around was great. I overheard many conversations that were extremely positive about the whole format. To be able to simply make appointments, and mix it up with mingling & wandering was perfect. The evening was fun, relaxed and informal, just the way it should be.”
Alistair Mylchreest, CEO at Sourcing City said: “We are fully dedicated to the ‘professional distributor’ sales channel in all that we do, and we were delighted that so many industry professionals highly valued the event. When a guest described SC LIVE as a truly ‘Business Class Experience’, we knew we had created an event of real value to professional distributors.”
To receive an invitation to SC LIVE!, companies had to meet a published criteria identifying them as a ‘professional distributor’.
The next Sourcing City LIVE! takes place at the FIVE Show Centre, Farnborough Airport on Wednesday & Thursday 15th & 16th January 2014.
To see the show photos click here.
*Please call us should you like copies of any pictures.
Published on: January 1st, 1970
