Barcelona.The sunshine of Barcelona shone brightly on EIBTM 2011 which closed on thursday having delivered three days of powerful business opportunities and connections as the annual international event for the meetings industry broke all its own records. Pre-show expectations were more than met with 64,950 Hosted Buyer pre-scheduled appointments leading the way to substantial business being conducted on the exhibition floor.
“Globally, this industry is responsible for 1.7 million jobs and $106 billion of GDP. Our role is to provide the platform and environment for the sector to meet and conduct business. Ultimately we believe we have achieved that and more and delivered value and profitable results for our customers” commented Graeme Barnett, EIBTM Event Director.
As the show closes on thursday, early indications of just how successful this year’s event has been are recorded in the pre-audited figures. All trade show attendee numbers for Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) are subject to an independent ABC Audit to provide total transparency to all stakeholders.
Over 15,300 meetings industry professionals attended EIBTM over the three days including a total visitor and buyer attendance of 9,262 (last year’s audited numbers were 8,395), 10.3% up on 2010, of which 3,904 were Hosted Buyers (last year’s audited numbers were 3,963 ) delivering a 9% increase on Hosted Buyer attendance from 2010.
EIBTM 2012 will take place from November 27 – 29, www.eibtm.com
