Scott Hider
Member Since: 9th Jul 2012
Likes: 0
Thanks: 6
Accountex is the UK's only national exhibition for accountants and finance directors working in practice, business and the public sector. It offers an unparalleled opportunity for financial professionals to gain expert insight and education within a live environment.
Supported by the UK's most important accountancy associations, Accountex delivers over 100 dynamic exhibiting companies, 12 educational seminar theatres, and interactive workshops. It's an invaluable resource for any leading professional in the accounting profession.
The show debuted in November 2012 with 2,776 visitors over two days, earning a place as a finalist for Best Launch Show Of 2012 at the AEO Excellence Awards. Accountex moved to its new regular summer dates in 2013, doubling in size with 30% more exhibitors, speakers and 3,760 visitors, cementing its place as Europe's leading accountancy exhibition.
For more information please contact Scott Hider - Event Director on 0117 9304927 or email [email protected]
My answers
Why London.....
Hi
Firstly let me introduce myself, my name is Scott Hider and I am the Group Event Director of Accountex and Legalex, some may have already seen a few posts from Tom King who is my Event Manager. We thought it would be a good idea to construct a response from Accountex reference location.
Firstly, I'm glad its up for debate, it means the show is in demand!
So why was the decision made to host the event in London?
1> Excel is a muti award winning venue and chosen because of the size and relevance of the audience within 1-3 traveling hours from it. For those further away than that the railway connections are second to none with an actual train station at the venue itself.
2> By running the show in multiple locations we would dilute the amount of exhibitors involved and the investment they make meaning that the event itself would not be of the same calibre. We have the market fully represented at the event and offer visitors a one stop shop for pretty much the entire industry, this just would not happen with diluted multiple events.
Now to look at the cost of taking a day out of the office and traveling to London.
We knew that this was going to be one of our greatest obstacles to overcome and that this would be a big commitment for those who have further to travel or are smaller operations so time out of the office has to be time well spent.
Firstly we took the decision to not charge visitors to the event. Our original plans were to charge visitors to attend this content rich trade show but we abolished this to help the "cost" argument. As such this event is now completely free of charge and from this year will contribute to your CPD requirements, we think that's a great thing no matter where you have to travel from. In addition to this we motivate our exhibitors to think about running special offers at the event which will offer the visitor great deals to be had on new and upcoming products and solutions, again this was with the cost of being out of the office in mind.
Please see the post above regarding Morgan Reach as a visitor to the event in 2012. What they have achieved since is truly remarkable and they will be returning this year to support their new 3 year plan.
I hope that the majority of you are able to find a way of attending the event and as with many others once you have visited and seen the value of the education and the incredible effort and lengths suppliers are going to, you will not be disappointed and will be visiting for years to come.
Time of year......
We always listen to our visitor and exhibitor feedback and took on board comments last year that the November time line was not great due to it being a very busy time for accountants.
We since moved the event to June (2014 dates are 29th &30th May) and increase the size and quality of the venue.
So far feedback has been great from both exhibitors and visitors commenting that ExCeL is a better venue due to the ease and cost of travel to and from it.
We will never please all of the people all of the time but we do our best to represent the interest of the majority.
A smaller show in the midlands or catering to the north of the country is not financially viable and would have a negative impact on the growth and development of Accountex which is a UK national event and as such takes place in the capital in one of the best venues in the UK. It also co-locates with The Business Show mentioned above which is also open to Accountex visitors.
Although we appreciate that every one wants it close to them, I will go as far as saying some things are worth travelling for!
Scott Hider
Event Director
Too Many Accountants
Kent,
Thanks for the comment. As you are looking to meet new clients I wondered if you were aware that we run the UK's largest Business show, focused on the Start-up & SME market next door. With just over 20,000 visitors this year I am confident that there are plenty of potential clients to meet at the event.
By attending Accountex you also get admission to the business show and within the business show there is a feature for visitors just like you to post a business card under the heading of Tax, Finance etc for other visitors to take or pin their business card to. Along with Speed networking and many other features designed specifically to meet new business and make new connections.
We hope that you will be able to attend next year.
Thanks to all that visited.
Accountex attracted a pre registration of 4613 and 2776 delegates actually attended the two day event. I am pleased to of read the comments about delegates finding the show useful and can only apologise to those that complained of poor quality sound in the theatres. I personally managed these and did have a few problems with the technical guys but these things are never perfect especially with an event of this size. As a whole we were very happy with the quality and numbers of attendees and as such proved a lot of people wrong who said that this event could never happen. 60% of exhibitors have already booked their stands for the 2013 event in June at Excel. We hope to see you at the next one! - Scott Hider - Event Director.