LONDON — This year's annual British International Direct Marketing Fair and its three new satellite shows opened yesterday with 425 exhibitors and 12,000 to 14,000 visitors.
Most exhibitors attended the parent IDMF, a show that has been around for several decades, while another 60 exhibited at the New Media show, which was here for an encore after its opening last year. Marketing IT, one of the two premiering exhibits, drew 25 stands while TelecommercExpo attracted 20 exhibitors.
Booths tended to be larger, taking advantage of the extra space available
at the new Excel conference center located in London's East End dock area.
Some IDMF exhibitors migrated to the new shows this year, and so the number of exhibitors at the parent fair was about 10 less, but overall the show is much larger in 2001.
First-day attendance figures were unavailable when the show closed last night, but floor traffic appeared to run from light to moderate and was large enough to please several stand owners.
“I've already seen quite a number of people I wanted to see this morning,” said James Thornton, managing director of MLA, a Hong Kong-based international list company, who took a booth for the first time this year.
Jerry Messer, the head of Data Services Inc., a Maryland-based computer service bureau, has attended this show for years but never found it necessary to open a stand. He said he had run into most of “the usual suspects” in his first turn around the exhibition floor.
Charles Prescott, the U.S. Direct Marketing Association's international vice president, brought his seven-member U.S. trade mission to the show. They have been in the UK since Sunday and were guests at a U.S. embassy dinner Monday attended by 60 prominent British direct marketers.
