Parkex; Europe’s largest dedicated parking exhibition, took place April 21-23 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, UK. Total attendance at the combined Parkex, Traffex and Street Design 2009 was 12,249, compared with 12,336 at the last event in 2007 (a drop of 87 visitors).
Given the current economic climate, this year’s attendance figure shows a continued support and interest in the event. Particularly pleasing was the large turnout of people representing more than 96% of local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.
The combined events proved to be a great success, with more than 450 exhibitors and attracting 12,336 visitors over the three open days. This included 8,891 unique visitors to Traffex, 2,443 unique visitors to Parkex, and 915 unique visitors to Street Design. There also was a strong international presence this year, from more than 30 countries, making up 12% of attendees.
Against current industry trends, visitors came with clear spending priorities and objectives with 11% of them controlling budgets between £1m and £5m per year, and a further 10% responsible for annual expenditure in excess of £5m per year.
Bill Butler, Event Director, commented: “The three events have been integrated into one hall to deliver innovative showcases from both UK and international companies. We were very pleased to see the industry rising to the challenge of the recession and becoming increasingly proactive in both the public and private sectors. It proves that there is business to be done even in these testing times.”
Said Peter Preston, Head of Communications for Siemens Mobility, Traffic Solutions: “The numbers of visitors at some of the trade events we’ve been to this year were down considerably, but not at Traffex. We’ve had a high number of extremely good quality visitors, and it was the perfect platform to showcase our latest products.”
The next combined Traffex, Parkex and Street Design event will be May 3-5, 2011, at Hall 5, The NEC Birmingham.
