Southern show set for expansion in 2007

An European Trade and Exhibition Services product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 28, 2006

Several new features have been added to the next Southern Manufacturing and Electronics show, taking place on 7th and 8th February 2007 at Thorpe Park, Surrey.

Organiser European Trade Exhibition Services has announced several new features for the next Southern Manufacturing and Electronics show, taking place on 7th and 8th February 2007 at Thorpe Park, Surrey.

Joining the successful Machinery Centre will be a new Electrical and Motion Engineering Centre, designed to allow specialists in this area to demonstrate their products in action.

The show's website will be completely redeveloped to allow exhibitors to add product listings and links to their own websites, free of charge.

The site will also incorporate a product sourcing service - a keyword searchable database with direct connection to exhibitor's own site, also provided free of charge to exhibitors.

Along with the all usual benefits, such as free parking, free inclusion in pre-show newsletters and the tremendously well-supported free seminar programmes, ETES is sure that these additional features will help push the attendance figures even higher than this year's impressive total.

Over 400 exhibiting companies and 4200 visitors made Southern Manufacturing and Electronics 2006 the most successful show of its nine-year history.

Visitors from a hugely diverse range of industries, and from a surprisingly wide geographic area visited Surrey's Thorpe Park over the two-day event.

The unique profile of the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics Show allows electronics, engineering and manufacturing companies to exhibit under one roof, giving visitors the opportunity to meet potential suppliers for every stage of their production cycle - from designers to manufacturing subcontractors - all in one venue.

Being conveniently accessible by road, rail and air, makes it easy for visitors to attend without committing an entire day out of their busy schedules.

The footfall from this year's event clearly demonstrates the powerful appeal of the show to buyers from a wide range of industries, including aerospace (23% of visitors), automotive (19%), mechanical engineering (31%), electrical engineering (30%) and defence (21%).

High-up on visitor's shopping lists were electronic assembly services (44%), fabrication (31%), machining (37%), mouldings (30%), laser profiling (27%) and finishing (24%) Southern Manufacturing is famous for the diversity as well as the quality of visitors it attracts, and this year was no exception.

This year's visitors list shows buyers from organisations as diverse as the BBC, British Airways, Toys 'R' Us and the Royal Dutch Navy.

Ian Cheeseman, Sales Manager of Pneumax , commented: "We do a lot of fluid power shows, but very often it just ends up as the industry talking to the industry".

"What I like about this show is the diverse mixture of visitors, which means we're meeting a lot of new people".

"We've already booked for next year".

The popularity of regional events is growing steadily as more SMEs discover the benefits of being able to market their products on the buyer's doorstep.

Roy Edkins, Account Manager with Speciality Fasteners and Components, said: "This show generates excellent quality leads".

"We've already booked for next year, and we've decided to do the North West show too".

Allan Ballard, Director of Production Design Supply, points out that regional events such as Southern Manufacturing and Electronics allow SME's to compete on a level playing field with much bigger companies, while Jo Saltman, Sales Manager for ALR Services, commented: "The five new accounts we've landed as a result of our exhibiting at Southern Manufacturing and Electronics 2006 indicates to us that we should be thinking about other regional exhibitions as well".

The next regional exhibition in the calendar will the North-West Manufacturing Show, held at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton on 7th and 8th June 2006.

The East Midlands show takes place in September, followed by the Northern show in October and Ireland in November.

Exhibitor places at Southern Manufacturing and Electronics 2007 are already filling up fast.