BTC 2012 CLOSES WITH RESULTS IN LINE WITH EXPECTATIONS
With 5,436 business meetings between hosted buyers and exhibitors conducted, BTC has started to receive positive feedback from exhibitors. The education programme was very well-attended, confirming the effectiveness of combining professional content with business opportunities. The planning of BTC 2013 already under way.
27 JUNE 2012 – BTC, the Italian trade show for the meetings, events, conferences, incentive travel and business tourism industry, concluded its 2012 edition, the last to be held in Rimini, on Friday 22 June.
With the announcement of the change in venue and date (in 2013, the show will be held in Florence, on 12-13 November), this year was a transitional one for BTC, pending the project to restructure and reposition the show, which next year will return to the market with wider institutional, political and industry partnerships, and a new business model that is closer to the demands of a changing market.
In attendance were 250 exhibiting companies, 214 Italian and international hosted buyers and 40 representatives of the press, with a total attendance figure over the two days of the show of 3,357, and5,436 appointments held between exhibitors and hosted buyers.
The feedback received by exhibitors through the assessment questionnaire has been generally positive: initial data shows that 71% of respondents were overall satisfied with BTC, which they found useful, in order of importance, for networking with buyers, fellow professionals and visitors (97%); meeting new clients (92%); getting updates on industry developments (77%); finding new partners (72%); taking part in the education programme (71%).
The feedback on “extra business” activities has also been positive: 85% of exhibitors that have so far completed the assessment questionnaires said they were satisfied with the networking with buyers evening organised by BTC at the Nettuno Bar on Rimini’s promenade. 100% said they were happy with the quality of the seminars, which were packed, with some attended by more than 120 participants. Complete figures relating to exhibitor feedback will be announced soon, together with those for hosted buyers.
The collateral activities dedicated to buyers and designed to offer them an experience of the destination and its leading facilities were also a success. These included the welcome dinner at the Grand Hotel di Rimini and the visit with networking dinner to Rimini’s Palacongressi Conference Centre, which less than a year on from its opening, has already become one of the key facilities in Italy’s conference market offer.
“We are overall satisfied with this edition of BTC” commented Paolo Audino, CEO of Exmedia, the company that organises BTC. “It was clearly a year of transition, but we were able to offer something to all players in the industry. Now we are starting to work on BTC 2013, which, with the support of the Region of Tuscany and the contribution of an enlarged Technical Committee that includes the leading institutional and market players, will be able to cement its position as the key exhibition in Italy’s for the meetings and events industry”.
