Las Vegas. As the fifth IMEX America closed on 15 October 2015, IMEX Group Chairman Ray Bloom announced that, in every important facet, the show had achieved new records. A total of 3,100 companies representing 150 countries exhibited including 80 new booths and 56 expanded booths while the IMEX hosted buyer program brought a record 3000 buyers from 54 countries to the show.
Over 10,600 people participated in the event. There were 66,000 business appointments of which over 57,000 were one-to-one appointments and booth presentations. The proportion of these appointments that had profiles attached online had risen to 51% enabling both buyers and exhibitors to be better prepared for their meetings.
More than 40 leading buyers from the corporate sector also came for the annual Executive Meetings Forum. With senior executives from Merck, Cisco Systems and Wells Fargo among them, together they controlled annual meetings budgets in excess of $3billion.
Ray Bloom reported that Smart Monday, powered by MPI, and supported by association partners, IAPCO, ICCA, ASAE, PCMA, HSMAI, DMAI, SITE, GBTA, GMIC and ECM, had once again grown and developed.
Ray Bloom said: “I’d like to congratulate MPI, our strategic partner and premier education provider, on the tremendous success of Smart Monday, which grows year after year. This day of high level education adds a tremendously valuable extra dimension to people’s overall experience of the show. The daily MPI key note sessions have also featured very interesting speakers and generated a great response.”
The new wellness initiative, “Be Well at IMEX,” included a meditation room and the first IMEXrun Las Vegas – Inspired by Rio de Janeiro, in advance of the Olympics. Sponsored by RioTur and Embratur and organized by sports by tlc, the route took in a section of the famous Las Vegas Strip. Fully booked, 412 exhibitors and buyers rose early to take on the course.
Looking ahead to IMEX in Frankfurt 2016, which will be at Messe Frankfurt on 19 – 21 April, a month earlier than usual, Ray Bloom reported that demand for the event from returning and new exhibitors continues to be exceptionally high from destinations, venues and service providers from across the world and this was already laying down strong foundations for the 2016 event.
