Events Review

ISPO 2010

The 40th International Trade Fair for Ski, Outdoor & Sport (ISPO) took place at the Munich Trade Fare Centre in February 2010.  The Federation of Sports & Play Associations attended as the British Exhibiting group sponsor.

For a number of years, since the demise of the UK sports show and ISPO Summer, ISPO Winter (renamed 2010 to ISPO) has been considered the leading ski, outdoor and team sports trade event for international European retailers, distributors and executives.  The exhibition is held in the “new” Munich Trade Fair Centre to the south-east of the city.  Transport links, facilities and exhibitor services at Messe Munchen are excellent and the show is very professionally managed.  There is an underground station directly at the fairground and exhibitors and visitors are able to use all the city public transport free of charge on production of their pass.

BRITISH GROUP

This year FSPA recruited 13 UK companies to the UK pavilion, 5 being new to ISPO and they were situated in 3 island stands and 1 row, with consisted of 300 square metres, with the FSPA providing a meeting/information stand. 

The stands were constructed by Meplan, a company based in Munich, which has built the UK group stands at both Golf Europe and ISPO for a number of years.  The quality of the UK group stand was excellent and the overall look very professional which was appreciated by both exhibitors and visitors.  Each exhibitor benefited from an inclusive furniture package comprising table, chairs, display counter, Velcro compatible display boards, sportlights and shelving.

The FSPA recruited 29 eligible companies for the UKTI grant and visited each exhibitor on the last day and all reported that they had had an excellent show and were pleased where they had been placed in the show.  Valerie Muggan from the British Consulate in Germany visited the majority of UK companies attending with a UKTI grant.

MARKETING ACTIVITY

• Prior to the show, the FSPA provided exhibitors with a full information pack on ISPO/Stand Build/Travel/Accommodation etc, along with helping to promote the UK group with Online editorial (4 page) on ISPO web site – SCN Preview Article, and two Editorial Articles in Sports Insight – UK Trade Sports Magazine and their online newsletter.  The FSPA also publicised the UK area by purchasing a full page advert (attached) in the official ISPO show planner and logo on hall plan, and x2 Floor and x2 Wall graphic in entrances/connecting corridors (as visitors enter B Halls-UK Pavilion based in Hall B4)
• The UK pavilion itself was branded with UKTI logos and large UK banners denoting and promoting the notably larger UK group area, and was manned throughout the show as a dedicated UK information point.   The FSPA produced professionally printed UK group brochures featuring every exhibitor and their products within the UK pavilion which were available on each UK exhibitor stand plus distributed at the media centre, for prospective buyers and various media representatives
• All UK exhibitors were provided with banded lanyards, and invited to attend and bring clients, customers and business contacts to the UK drinks reception (of which professionally printed invitations were produced and sent out weeks before the show)

VISITOR FIGURES

ISPO in its 40th year once again expanded its position as an internationally leading sports business network.  Exhibitors as well as visitors rated ISPO 2010 as very good.  The atmosphere in the exhibition halls was extremely positive, and exhibitors were particularly pleased with the high amount of visitors.  More than 64,000 international visitors from 177 countries, this is a new visitor record and represents an increase of 7 percent compared to 2009 – 68 percent came from outside of Germany.  The strongest foreign visitor contingents hailed from Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, UK, Spain, the Netherlands, the Korean Republic, the Czech Rupublic and Sweden and 2,045 exhibitors from 45 countries registered for ISPO which covered 89,000 square metres.

ISPO 2011

ISPO is very successful at retaining exhibitors and the majority of the UK group and those attending with UKTI grants stated they would exhibit at ISPO 2011. The FSPA has been approached by visiting UK companies who would like to exhibit at ISPO 2011, and we also have interest from UK companies who were too late to exhibit in the UK pavilion in 2010, these will all of course be followed up later this year.