On reflection, planning an exhibition is often the easiest part, hoping that the visitors actually show up on the day is definitely the most difficult part.

Held in Hall 19 at the NEC in Birmingham, visitor numbers at Channel Expo 2008 were up on last year and from all accounts it was a better quality of visitor contributing to the overall footfall on stands, which lays a positive foundation for the event in future years.

With more than 100 exhibitors this year, there was plenty on offer, and the panel sessions in the How To Sell Theatre received good feedback, with Green IT being the most popular session.

Keynote speaker Nick Leeson was also a hit with his talk on risk-taking and controls, and his time spent in a maximum security Singapore prison for his part in the downfall of Barings Bank. All in all, the post-event feedback from exhibitors was overwhelm-ingly positive.

Bhavesh Patel, commercial director at distribution giant Ingram Micro, whose stand dominated the centre of Hall 19 complete with its 32 vendor partners, was pleased with the results.

“The footfall for us has been good,” he said. “The vendors we have spoken to overall have been positive about the level of engagement they have had with the resellers, and we have actually picked up some new clients as well.
“I think Channel Expo is directed much more at a broader audience than just the reseller channel and that is what is appealing about it. As a show there are lots of positives in terms of the timing and the How to Sell Theatre, but if we want this exhibition to be the focus point of the entire channel we have to keep working on it.”

Adrian Williams, head of OEM and IT channel partners at T-Mobile said: “It is the first time we have been here. Our expectations were fairly high and a lot of people talked to us.”

Matthew Poyiadgi, vice president for EMEA at trade organisation the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), which also gave a successful keynote speech on the seven steps to sales success on day one of the event, said: “The footfall on our stand has surprised me. We even ran out of application forms on the first day.

“CompTIA is relatively new to the UK market and this has helped us raise our profile. We will definitely be back next year.”
Sunny Singh, head of channel sales at Telappliant enthused over Channel Expo.
“The show has been fantastic and we have about 200 leads. There was a good mix of people and I found it all
very positive.”

However, Justin Coombe, marketing manager at Gamma Telecom, said visitor numbers tailed off on the second day.
“We were really, really impressed on the first day with the quality of the leads, which were just what we were hoping for. The second day, if I am being totally honest, was disappointing. But overall, it has been worthwhile.”

Matt Jackson, director of distributor Red Cell Solutions, said: “Channel Expo has been very useful for Red Cell. The first day seemed busier and attracted larger companies. The second day seemed to catch the interests of the smaller companies.”
Rob Verbeek, chief executive of online backup vendor IASO, was also happy with the event.

“I was a bit wary coming over from the Netherlands to launch in the UK market. However, being at Expo, and the great conversations IASO has had with new companies, has reinforced the areas where I had my doubts ­ Channel Expo has made IASO want to invest in the UK market even more.”

The CRN events team has taken a lot of valuable information away from the Expo event and will definitely be using it to create an even better event next year.

We welcome your feedback on this year’s Channel Expo ­ please email any comments to sara.yirrell@incisivemedia.com.