IMEX won top AEO industry award

Regent Exhibitions Ltd, organisers of IMEX, the worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events, were delighted to be voted winners of a brand new Association of Exhibition Organisers (AEO) award, ‘Best Visitor Experience, Trade Show’, at the UK association’s annual Excellence Awards on 1st July.

The award was presented to IMEX Chairman, Ray Bloom, during a ceremony at London’s Excel where 1,100 guests enjoyed a lunch party on a topical summer holiday theme.

IMEX is the first ever recipient of this new award. Explaining the reasons why the Frankfurt exhibition came out on top, AEO Chairman, Trevor Foley, commented, “The judges were impressed at the lengths that IMEX went to ensure that the event experience was something that the visitors and exhibitors would jointly value. This is a new award category which reflects the significance of the visitor experience to our industry. I’m pleased to say that the standard of entries was extremely high.”

Speaking about the award, Ray Bloom said, “I’m thrilled that the industry has singled out IMEX for this award. We are consistently innovating to ensure that IMEX is a successful experience for everybody involved – exhibitors, hosted buyers, visitors and press. Ensuring the right quality of visitors and meeting their needs and expectations is extremely important.”

The AEO, which represents the UK’s exhibition industry, makes 15 industry ‘Excellence’ awards every year.

IMEX, which takes place from May 30 – June 1 2006, has also now announced dates for its 2007 and 2008 shows which will take place in Hall 8, Messe Frankfurt, Germany.