Lunch! shortlisted for Best Trade Show honour for fourth year in a row
Lunch! – Europe’s premier trade event for the
food-to-go market – has once again been shortlisted for a pair of AEO
Excellence Awards by the United Kingdom’s Association of Event
Organisers (AEO). The 2013 edition of the award ceremony, which
recognises achievements by organisers, venues, suppliers and contractors
throughout the exhibitions industry, will take place at Old
Billingsgate, London, on June 21, 2013.
The recently announced nominations see lunch! up for its fourth consecutive Best Trade Show Exhibition (under 2,000sq m) award, an accolade that the event first won at the AEO’s Excellence Awards in 2010 (this was followed by a second triumph in 2011). The lunch! team will also be defending its Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award, which it won last year.
Diversified Business Communications UK, the organiser of lunch!, received a total of four nominations in the exhibition industry’s most prestigious award ceremony; with its office show and new launch Natural Products Scandinavia also recognised.
The news came soon after visitor registration opened for lunch!’s sixth edition, which will feature over 270 exhibitors (up by 15 per cent from 236) when it returns to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, on September 26 and 27, 2013.
Renowned for attracting top buyers from across the food-to-go retailing and contract catering industry, lunch! has enjoyed growing industry prominence and support since it launched in 2008 with around 100 exhibitors.
Attendance at lunch! has surged by over 100 per cent in the last five years, i.e. from 2,197 to 4,403. In 2012, the exhibition was sold out four months early in the process, relocated to a bigger venue and witnessed an increase in its exhibitors by 42 per cent. Interest from international buyers was up by 32 per cent in 2012, on top of a 76 per cent increase the previous year). They were drawn to London on the promise of seeing several new launches from the food-to-go sector’s most cutting-edge food, drink, packaging, equipment and technology suppliers.
Speaking on behalf of the lunch! team, Chris Brazier, group event manager, said, “From day one we wanted lunch! to be different, to really stand out from the event crowd, and to be a real buying experience that visitors – from the biggest multiples to the local cafes and coffee shops – all actually enjoyed coming to.”
“Five shows and three industry awards later, the word that still appears more often than any other in testimonials about lunch! is 'innovation'. That’s what great about the show – it’s the ethos that drives it forward – and we’re absolutely delighted that the AEO has recognised this once more,” he added.
Brazier said, “It’s an exceptionally rare honour – and an enormous achievement for everyone here at Diversified UK – to be nominated for best trade show and best marketing campaign for two years running – and it wouldn’t be possible without the continued support of all our exhibitors, visitors, sponsors and partners.”
This continuing support has already heralded the prospective announcement of a sold-out show months away from the opening day, with booked stand space for 2013 now already outstripping the total sales for last year’s show.
The expansion into a whole new area at the three-floor venue (which is now home to the Innovation Zone, the Innovation Challenge Showcase, the Working lunch! Theatre, British Smoothie Championships, Press Office, and a new VIP lounge) has done little to slow demand, with just a handful of stands left on the upper level (plus one stand on the ground level).
Confirmed exhibitors to date include such brands as Equip Line; Impress Sandwiches; Delice de France; Cafe Deli Wholesale; Odysea; Tayto; Bagel Nash; ABDA; Tudor Tea & Coffee; The Food Doctor; Magrini; Wrigley UK; Simple Simon Foods; Delifrance UK; Freshfayre Chilled Foodservice; First Pack; Crown Foods; and Warbutons.
The recently announced nominations see lunch! up for its fourth consecutive Best Trade Show Exhibition (under 2,000sq m) award, an accolade that the event first won at the AEO’s Excellence Awards in 2010 (this was followed by a second triumph in 2011). The lunch! team will also be defending its Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award, which it won last year.
Diversified Business Communications UK, the organiser of lunch!, received a total of four nominations in the exhibition industry’s most prestigious award ceremony; with its office show and new launch Natural Products Scandinavia also recognised.
The news came soon after visitor registration opened for lunch!’s sixth edition, which will feature over 270 exhibitors (up by 15 per cent from 236) when it returns to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, on September 26 and 27, 2013.
Renowned for attracting top buyers from across the food-to-go retailing and contract catering industry, lunch! has enjoyed growing industry prominence and support since it launched in 2008 with around 100 exhibitors.
Attendance at lunch! has surged by over 100 per cent in the last five years, i.e. from 2,197 to 4,403. In 2012, the exhibition was sold out four months early in the process, relocated to a bigger venue and witnessed an increase in its exhibitors by 42 per cent. Interest from international buyers was up by 32 per cent in 2012, on top of a 76 per cent increase the previous year). They were drawn to London on the promise of seeing several new launches from the food-to-go sector’s most cutting-edge food, drink, packaging, equipment and technology suppliers.
Speaking on behalf of the lunch! team, Chris Brazier, group event manager, said, “From day one we wanted lunch! to be different, to really stand out from the event crowd, and to be a real buying experience that visitors – from the biggest multiples to the local cafes and coffee shops – all actually enjoyed coming to.”
“Five shows and three industry awards later, the word that still appears more often than any other in testimonials about lunch! is 'innovation'. That’s what great about the show – it’s the ethos that drives it forward – and we’re absolutely delighted that the AEO has recognised this once more,” he added.
Brazier said, “It’s an exceptionally rare honour – and an enormous achievement for everyone here at Diversified UK – to be nominated for best trade show and best marketing campaign for two years running – and it wouldn’t be possible without the continued support of all our exhibitors, visitors, sponsors and partners.”
This continuing support has already heralded the prospective announcement of a sold-out show months away from the opening day, with booked stand space for 2013 now already outstripping the total sales for last year’s show.
The expansion into a whole new area at the three-floor venue (which is now home to the Innovation Zone, the Innovation Challenge Showcase, the Working lunch! Theatre, British Smoothie Championships, Press Office, and a new VIP lounge) has done little to slow demand, with just a handful of stands left on the upper level (plus one stand on the ground level).
Confirmed exhibitors to date include such brands as Equip Line; Impress Sandwiches; Delice de France; Cafe Deli Wholesale; Odysea; Tayto; Bagel Nash; ABDA; Tudor Tea & Coffee; The Food Doctor; Magrini; Wrigley UK; Simple Simon Foods; Delifrance UK; Freshfayre Chilled Foodservice; First Pack; Crown Foods; and Warbutons.
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