Barcelona. This year’s EIBTM was confirmed by Paul Kennedy, MBE, Group Exhibition Director as the ‘biggest ever’. He announced that unaudited figures showed that the event attracted a record number of Hosted Buyers – 3,711 up 12% on the previous year; 51,000 pre- scheduled meetings were organised over the three day event – up over 11,000, and total attendance  is expected to top the 8,000 mark, up 6% on 2007.
Paul Kennedy commented: “The record figures show not only how resilient the meetings market is in challenging times but the reputation EIBTM has as the place to do business. It certainly seemed that more actual business was being transacted on the show floor than ever before. We welcomed our largest ever gathering of Hosted Buyers from as far afield as Australia, China, India, Thailand and the Americas and from an exhibitor perspective we are already receiving requests for space for next year.”
The buzz around the show highlighted  the enormous amount of business generated at the event. Mr Peter Bull, Saleslink Marketing Portugal said: “We had 290 pre-scheduled appointments in three days. We haven’t stopped. On Wednesday we had 14 signed specific group enquiries.” Ms Tereza Zarogianni, Eventit Greece said :“It’s been fantastic business – no recession here; at least not here at EIBTM.” www.eibtm.com