LONDON–The Reed Exhibition Cos. have put the 22-year old British International Direct Marketing Fair into a new subsidiary, the Reed Marketing Group, and will move the show to a still-unfinished conference center in the dock area of the British capital in 2001.
The ExCel conference center is under construction on a 100-acre site along the Thames six miles from Trafalgar Square across the river from the Millennium Dome 2000. It is part of a $16 billion investment program in the Dockland area that includes a new subway line linking the East End to central London.
The new facility, whose shell is to be weatherproofed in April, will have 78,000 square yards of exhibition space in two glass-enclosed buildings overlooking the Thames. The first exhibition is scheduled to open there in November.
The rebranded show will be known as London Marketing Expo and will be held March 13-15, 2001. Malcolm Whitmarsh, exhibition director for the International Federation of Direct Marketing Associations, who will also run the Reed Marketing Group, told a press conference on the opening day of this year's edition that the 2001 event will include four related shows in the same venue.
The IDMF will remain the core and focus on traditional direct marketing methodologies such as mailings and the accompanying technologies. New Media Marketing, launched this year as an Internet show that attracted 65 exhibitors and 4,000 pre-registrants, will continue in 2001.
Two new shows will be added to the expo. Marketing IT — Technology for Marketers will focus on data mining, global information systems, credit profiling, data warehousing and customer relationship management. It is designed to attract senior management from multinationals and the small and medium enterprise community.
Telecommercexpo is being launched in response to a 22 percent growth in the United Kingdom's telesales business in this area in 1998-99. “It is now much more than telemarketing,” Whitmarsh said, “which is only one strand given Internet developments.”
The show will feature inbound and outbound call handling, call center hardware and software, computer telephony integration and Web-enabled telephony.
Whitmarsh insisted that each show would retain its own character and draw new audiences that have not attended IDMF and that by being under one roof the shows would trigger much cross-fertilization. Although attendees will register for each conference separately, they can cross over into the other shows. All are housed in one space but will be clearly marked and differentiated.
The Reed Marketing Group has acquired two other shows that will be in different venues and at different times. Total Marketing Solutions is held at the NEC facility in Birmingham, England, and is focused on the entire marketing community, including DM. The audience will be different than that for the London show, reflecting its geographic locale in the English Midlands. The idea, Whitmarsh said, is to provide a second meeting during the year for the marketing community.
In addition, iwIncentive World 2000 was acquired by Reed Exhibition Cos. earlier this month and put under the Reed Marketing Group umbrella. It is held in early March in Earls Court, London. This is a sales promotion and incentive exhibition that attracts 450 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees.
