Coventry and Warwickshire has successfully attracted future interest in the region following one of the UK’s leading events shows.
The team representing the region secured more than 120 leads to pursue at International Confex, all of which could bring people to the area and further drive investment.
A selection of the region’s top business tourism organisations including Ricoh Arena, Wasps, Coombe Abbey Hotel, Shakespeare’s England, Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, and Birmingham Airport represented Coventry and Warwickshire at the event at Olympia London.
International Confex brings together the top business tourism organisations from across the UK and the globe to create connections and build new relationships with more than 350 exhibitors and 8,000 events industry professionals attending.
Helen Peters, Chief Executive of Shakespeare’s England, the not-for-profit Destination Management Organisation (DMO) for South Warwickshire, which promotes tourism in Coventry and Warwickshire, said: “Across the event we were able to achieve more than 120 leads which is an incredibly impressive amount and really shows the value of the event.
“Coombe Abbey Hotel, Ricoh Arena and Birmingham Airport are members of Shakespeare’s England so to be able to work together and help promote the top attractions and hotels in the region is a really beneficial experience.
“Birmingham Airport has joined us at the event for the first time and having such a key asset to the region helping to drive investment was incredibly helpful in securing leads.
“We look forward to seeing how these leads progress and how we can continue to drive interest and investment in Coventry, Warwickshire and the wider region.
“We have recently launched our free Conference Desking facilities in partnership with Conference Coventry and Warwickshire to support event organisers finding the perfect venue for their clients. It was great to be able to spread the word about this at International Confex.”
The stand also hosted a range of competitions including tickets to see Wasps Rugby and Netball and an overnight stay at Coombe Abbey with tickets to the new Go Ape treetop experience launching next month.
Coombe Abbey Hotel, which is operated by Coombe Abbey Park Limited, has partnered with Go Ape to launch the new treetop obstacle course in the park this April. June Picken, Director of Sales at the hotel detailed the amount of interest there was in this new activity coming to the area.
“We were joined at our stand by ‘Jeremy’ the gorilla to help promote the launch of this exciting new venture and he was a huge hit with visitors.
“Go Ape is a really unique activity to have at Coombe Abbey and we’re thrilled to have been able to spread the word about these new facilities to so many people.”
Alongside the competitions, a special guest appearance from Wasps Rugby player Ross Neal, and Wasps Netball and England Roses international Rachel Dunn brought more interest to the stand.
Jenni Ford, Head of Sales at Ricoh Arena, added: “It is important for us to be involved with regional partners and current event organisers from across the country to showcase the variety of different event spaces we have to offer.
“Not only did we achieve 28 direct leads, they were also all incredibly promising and we are confident that they will result in even more events choosing the Ricoh Arena as their venue.”