Looking forward to Channel Expo 2010

Channel Expo 2009 is over for another year.

The build-up for us at CRN starts in December, so we have literally been living and breathing Expo for the whole year.

On the whole I would say the event was a success and this is not just because we organised it.

Judging from feedback given to me at the event most exhibitors were happy with how it went, although there were some gripes.

The two main gripes were:

Visitor numbers - our official count shows that visitor numbers were the same as last year, standing at just over 3,000 during the two days. Not bad for one of the worst economic downturns this country has ever seen and for an event that we only took over last year. Attendance to the education and technology theatres was the highest we have seen in the history of the show, and the quality of speakers and keynote subjects were definitely the best yet, in my opinion.

Visitor quality - this has been a very important issue for us and speaking to people over the two days, most said they had noticed the quality of people had improved on the whole. Unfortunately due to the nature of the NEC there are going to be some tyre-kickers there and the inevitable oddball, but certainly from the quality of people I was bumping into over the two days, it shows we are headed in the right direction.

However, as we announced at the show, Expo is moving to London Olympia next year, which I think will definitely clear up most of the gripes about visitors and help attract some of the bigger names.

Also from my own experience, getting to Birmingham is not the most convenient of journeys - I live in Leicestershire and it took me three separate train journeys to get to the NEC, whereas a trip to London is just over an hour.

Generally the feedback from the move announcement was positive. By holding the event in London, businesses based in the south can pop in for a couple of hours and be back at the office on the same day. It is not a whole day out the office. Time is a precious commodity.

We had support from more tier-one vendors this year than ever before which certainly pulled in the crowds, and I can only hope that next year, we can complete the jigsaw and ensure all the top vendors come to this event which is aimed entirely at the channel.

There is no other event of its kind in the UK and it is an ideal networking opportunity and a chance to get your message across to the widest possible audience. Again I think the move to London will help with this.

This year Expo had over 100 exhibitors, which included Dell, OKI, Intel, Gateway, Opal, Gamma Telecom, Ricoh, Xerox, T-Mobile, Ingram Micro, ESET, Kaseya, SCHd, Varlink, Wasp, Entatech, Kyocera, VMware, and Spitfire.

We also had channel centric organisations along this year including CompTIA, the PC Association, Brigantia and Integra.

Thanks as always goes to them for their continuing support. Thanks also go to all our speakers for sparing the time to come along and share their thoughts with us, as well as all the hours in preparation it must have taken.

We know that the Expo brand will continue to grow and are confident that every year it will get bigger and better.

To see all the main news from this year's show please visit the Channeleyes newsletters.

To find out more about Expo 2010, please contact Alan Loader on 020 7316 9733 or Colin Logan 020 7316 9484.

See you in London next year!