Past shows
A triumph for Coach & Bus Live 2007 with busy attendance figures despite the postal disruption
12/09/2007
Despite the postal disruption, there was great industry support at the NEC as Coach & Bus Live 2007 closed yesterday (October 11th) after two days of busy crowds with many exhibitors reporting an active, profitable and highly worthwhile show, announced the organisers of Coach & Bus Live 2007 at the Birmingham NEC. It was “standing room only” in the seminar theatre and more visitors than ever took part in the popular Ride & Drive and Skills Tests events. All in all a highly successful event, which has prompted the show organisers to formally announce that this event will return in 2009.
The 2nd edition of this show saw figures similar to 2005 with an attendance of over 5,600* through the doors over the 2 days. A record 230 exhibitors filled Halls 17 – 19 and over 80 Vehicles were on display for all to see and try out.
Many of the visitors took advantage of the wide range of indoor and outdoor activities. Over 85 visitors left their show bags at the counter to take part in the Skills Test, sponsored by Volvo, which was organised with the usual enthusiasm and efficiency by Paul and Anne Cousins from Coach Displays.
Ride & Drive was another popular feature with 65 visitors taking part over the 2 days outside Hall 17.
Hugh Sumner from the Olympic Delivery Authority opened the show and in his speech outlined the enormous impact that the games will have on this industry. He stated that the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics poses a huge challenge, yet is one that we will rise to. But it also offers a huge opportunity as well – the chance to leave a legacy to both London and the UK.
He said the Games needs large numbers of vehicles for transporting visitors, the media and athletes and as a result will change the way people think about Passenger Transport.
He expressed his delight in being able to use events such as Coach & Bus Live to help them in their planning and objectives to create an outstanding Games.
The Live Seminars were an outstanding success. In many cases it was standing room only with visitors keen to hear the latest updates on the Transport plan for the London 2012 Olympics. The Question Time Sessions were lively with Driver CPC being hot on the agenda.
After a highly successful debut of Coach & Bus Live in 2005, followed by an incredible first launch of Euro Bus Expo in 2006, the task for the organisers of this year’s Coach & Bus Live to deliver a bigger and better show was always going to be challenging. And, as Mark Griffin, Show Director explains, external factors such as the recent postal strike will always have an adverse affect on any event:
Griffin has always believed that sheer numbers attending a trade show is always not the key metric: “I am delighted at the overall quality of attendance and it was clear from speaking to many people at the show that much needed business was generated across a whole range of products and service types. The busy 2 day format again worked well and we are grateful that many of the industry’s well known faces took time to come along and participate at the exhibition. I would like to thank every one of our exhibitors and their teams for their support once again”
“This was a very good attendance over the 2 days and a great result for us. In fact it exceeded our expectations when you allow for the challenges that the postal strike caused for us. I don’t mind admitting that circumstances like this which are beyond the control of any Organiser did cause us some stress beforehand, but overall we are delighted. The postal strike meant that effectively the vast majority of trade press and features and our direct mail which had all been pre arranged in the days prior to the show, did not hit visitor desks in time. The last week prior to any trade show is always a key time for promoting the event to visitors but this year the postal strike inevitably had an impact on visitors and exhibitors getting the latest pre show information including their visitor badges.
There was enthusiastic feedback from across the show floor with a host of exhibitors reporting a highly successful event. They had quality leads to take away, focused visitors coming to the stand with a clear purpose in mind and, in some cases, buyers came to place orders and secure deals on the exhibition stand itself.
“We are very pleased to be here and pleased to be flying the flag for the industry.” said Optare’s Steve Johnson. “We have taken positive enquiries and secured a couple of strong orders. We have already booked our space for EBE 08!”
Mike Whitehead from Distinctive Systems commented on the quality of visitors to the stand: “We have had lots of visitors to our stand, however the key thing for us was the phenomenal quality of the visitors many who we did not expect to be at the show, yet they made a point of coming to see us.
CBL was an excellent show for us.”
The order book was brisk for a couple of exhibitors with Ian Hall from Base reporting a most worthwhile event: “By the morning of Day 2 we have had 60 solid enquiries and on top of that we have just secured an order from Simpsons Coaches where the business was concluded on our exhibition stand.”
And Gary Johns from Tawe was heading straight for the bank after the show ends: “We are thrilled to announce that we secured an order for one of our minibuses as a result of a visitor coming to our stand. At the end of the discussion, when the deal was made, she sat down and wrote out a cheque to cover the deposit. I will be off to the bank tomorrow. Whilst we expected and indeed got many leads, we did not expect this!”
The timing of Coach & Bus Live could not have been better for Andrew Brian, CEO of the Darwen Group: “We are delighted with the result of our attendance here. The timing of CBL was fantastic as it was the perfect platform for us to roll out the Darwen brand. We used this show to tell the industry who we were, what we did and what we could offer. The quality of visitors was outstanding.
We have already secured our space for EBE 08!”
Coach & Bus Live attracted visitors from across the length of the UK as Paul Beamont from Great Days explains: „ An exceptional show, where we have secured lots of new leads and met some old friends and customers. By seeing over 40 clients in 2 days, we have saved ourselves an inordinate amount of time which would have normally been spent in pro-actively contacting them.
We have had visitors from the South Coast up to Aberdeen, indeed some have flown down from Scotland for the show, although not sure we should be advocating that method of transport!”
Having a chocolate fountain on a stand may not be a new idea, but it bought sweet success to Brian Chappell of Signature Aromas “On Day one we signed a contact with Travel WM to provide 33 of our natural oil systems for their latest fleet of single deckers. Their Purchasing Officer came specifically to this show with pen in hand to formally sign the papers!”
Many exhibitors have already voted the show a success and would also definitely return for another edition. This has prompted Mark Griffin to issue the formal announcement that Coach & Bus Live will be back at the NEC on October 7th and 8th 2009.
“Coach & Bus Live 2007 has been an outstanding success and the rise in exhibitor numbers together with the sheer quality of visitors attending has prompted an overwhelming response from exhibitors. And as a result of this show, I am delighted to announce that Coach & Bus Live will return in 2009. This industry continues to grow and with the London Olympics just 5 years away, Passenger Transport is just going to get higher and higher on the agenda.”
*Complete 2007 audited attendance and demographic show statistics will be available in December.
COACH & BUS LIVE 2005 HAS PROVEN TO BE A WINNING FORMULA
The first ever Coach & Bus Live has proved be a winning formula. Over 5,200 visitors came along to the new format two day show, which took place at the NEC Birmingham, with exhibitors reporting excellent levels of business.
”The interest has been overwhelming” commented Richard Hunter of Salvador Caetano, who launched the Levante, a fully wheelchair accessible coach developed in conjunction with National Express, which proved one of the show’s star attractions – so much so that it attracted coverage from Regional BBC TV news.
Ian Hall of BASE Coach Sales, UK dealer for Marcopolo, was also been delighted with both the quantity and quality of visitors. ”We’ve been pleasantly surprised – even though it’s a smaller show, it’s been extremely busy with people taking the time to look. We’ve been very pleased with the contacts we’ve made”.
Optare used the show to launch their new midi-coach, the Toro with Sales Director Bob Coombs confirming that they took five orders on the first day alone. Alexander Dennis were also delighted with the response to the launch of their double deck bus – the Enviro 400 - ”It’s fabulous – we got off to a flying start and have taken nearly 100 orders,” said Communications Director, Bill Simpson. ”We feel this new look show works well – we like the format and we like the atmosphere.”
Business was brisk too on the wide range of industry supplier stands which made up a large proportion of the 170 exhibitors at the show. Praise came from Ron Telford of Hansar Finance: “The show has been excellent - we only attend one show each year so it has to be worthwhile and this is undoubtedly the place to be.”
Meanwhile, Steve Reed of Steve Reed Tourism felt that the move to a two day event was the right one: “Previous shows have been good, but this has been excellent - it’s exceeded our expectations. As well as seeing many old friends, we’ve made some valuable new contacts.” John Turton of Carlyle Bus and Coach admitted to some initial reservations about attending the new look show: “We weren’t sure if the new format would work but we decided to support the show and we’re delighted that we did.”
James Radford of Somers Vehicle Lifts felt that the new features were a positive addition: “The show has been busy and the fact that there is something different happening has undoubtedly drawn more people” he said. “We’ve already had one major sale which has made it all worthwhile.”
The show’s interactive format, which included a Ride and Drive facility, provided further opportunities for some exhibitors, including Vision Techniques who provided a viewing platform for the vehicle test drive programme. ”We’re just breaking into the coach and bus market and this sponsorship has worked really well for us,” commented Stuart Redman. ”We’ve been very impressed with the traffic flow, we’ve made some good contacts and created some good leads.”
Macemain+ Amstad felt that the outdoor features were a valuable addition to the show: ”In addition to the outdoor bus shelter, we’ve created a departure lounge inside the exhibition,”explained Amel Djebli. ”It’s enabled us to show much more product and talk to more people.” The success of the outdoor activity was such that nearly 100 visitors put their skills to the test over the two days of the show, whilst more than 200 test drives were taken on the special Ride & Drive course.
The Test Drive Live Award was won by Leonard Priestley, who was the only contestant to complete the course with no penalty points over the two days. Paul Cousins of Coach Displays UK, whose team ran the Test Drive Live feature, complemented a jubilant Leonard for his “smooth and accurate driving technique, which displayed great skill and judgement”. He wasn’t the only winner at the show either.
John Chadwick of Countywide Travel and his wife Frances will be enjoying a fabulous weekend in Rome as the lucky winner of the pre-registration prize sponsored by Ricon (UK). Both John and Frances were on hand to be presented the prize by Ricon’s Regional Sales Manager, John Weatherhog just before the show closed on Thursday.
Show Director Mark Griffin is delighted with the response to the new look show. “We set out to make the new show innovative and interactive and by the reaction we’ve had it looks as though we have managed to achieve exactly that. We’ve had great take-up in both the outdoor driving features, where visitors have clearly relished the opportunity of getting behind the wheel, whilst the live theatre events have seen the issues of the day being hotly debated”.
