British Leisure Show hits target despite the weather
22 Mar 2010
A glimmer of sunshine on the Sunday brought the crowds in
James Brooke and his team ran its first British Leisure Show at Windsor on March 18, 19 and 20. And it seems they got the exhibitor mix right and the publicity right and hit the show’s target of 20,000.
LEISURE SHOW: After abortive attempts at running a boat show, James Brooke and his team seem to have hit the right mixture of boats, outdoor, leisure and entertainment to hit the target attendance of 20,000 over the three days of the British Leisure Show at Royal Windsor Racecourse.
‘Our vision has been to create a brand new event which offers a unique experience for visitors, while at the same time providing exhibitors with a fresh opportunity to make sales and reach out to an entirely new customer base,’ said James Brooke, MD of the show.
The feedback has been exceptionally positive, and we’re already very excited about planning for the 2011 show, where we aspire to establish a very significant representation from the marine industry, he added.
In spite of appalling weather over two of the three days, the show brought in 21,866, with 3820 on the Friday, 7145 on the Saturday and 10921 on Sunday.
Mr Brooke says the totals are purely visitors and do not include exhibitor attendance. ‘Separate entrances helped us to be accurate with our logging,’ he told BB.
Over three days the visitors were treated to swooping Birds of Prey, impressive Big Air Mountain Boarding, stunning kite displays and adrenaline fuelled land yachting. A wide range of boating activities included canoeing, diving and boatbuilding.
Feedback from exhibitors has been extremely positive, said Mr Brooke, with overwhelming agreement that the location, atmosphere and combination of product has been superb, resulting in many new customer leads and good sales being made.
Being critical, BB has to say the show layout was confusing, with narrow aisles and uncertain or, in places, non existent signage. And the stand numbering would have confused Carol Vorderman…
But when BB went round on the wet Friday, everyone was happy and waiting only for the promised good weather that eventually arrived on the Sunday.
See the April issue of Boating Business for a larger report and Show Quotes.
‘Our vision has been to create a brand new event which offers a unique experience for visitors, while at the same time providing exhibitors with a fresh opportunity to make sales and reach out to an entirely new customer base,’ said James Brooke, MD of the show.
The feedback has been exceptionally positive, and we’re already very excited about planning for the 2011 show, where we aspire to establish a very significant representation from the marine industry, he added.
In spite of appalling weather over two of the three days, the show brought in 21,866, with 3820 on the Friday, 7145 on the Saturday and 10921 on Sunday.
Mr Brooke says the totals are purely visitors and do not include exhibitor attendance. ‘Separate entrances helped us to be accurate with our logging,’ he told BB.
Over three days the visitors were treated to swooping Birds of Prey, impressive Big Air Mountain Boarding, stunning kite displays and adrenaline fuelled land yachting. A wide range of boating activities included canoeing, diving and boatbuilding.
Feedback from exhibitors has been extremely positive, said Mr Brooke, with overwhelming agreement that the location, atmosphere and combination of product has been superb, resulting in many new customer leads and good sales being made.
Being critical, BB has to say the show layout was confusing, with narrow aisles and uncertain or, in places, non existent signage. And the stand numbering would have confused Carol Vorderman…
But when BB went round on the wet Friday, everyone was happy and waiting only for the promised good weather that eventually arrived on the Sunday.
See the April issue of Boating Business for a larger report and Show Quotes.
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