All those who made the journey to ExCeL to attend, or exhibit, at PestEx 2017 came away happy. The effort was certainly considered worth it. Held on 22 & 23 March, at ExCeL in East London, this now seems the established home for the event, as it is the sixth time it has been located here.
| BPCA hits lucky with the weather, but… Another surprising fact is, despite its even earlier date in the year, it always seems to be good weather for this event! What no-one could forecast, or foresee, was the shocking terrorist attack during the afternoon of day one, not more than a few miles down the road in the heart of London – at Westminster. Shocking certainly, but despite fears amongst the organisers, this seemed to make little difference to day two delegate numbers. About the only obvious manifestation was increased security when arriving at Canary Wharf for the gala dinner and the British Pest Management Awards awards ceremony. In true Brit style – it was a case of ‘just get on with it.’ Numbers transparent In total, over the two days 2,641 people passed through the entry doors. Of these 498 were exhibitors and 11 speakers or press. Of these remaining 2,132 people, 1,146 were visitors on the first day, 699 came on day two of which a massive 287 people were returning for the second day. Meaning, with exhibitors excluded, there were 1,856 individual visitors. The depth of the seminar programme may well have brought people back on the second day. But most likely it was because it was neigh impossible to get around all the exhibitors in one day only, whilst also picking-off the odd seminar or two to attend. Exhibitors from far and wide… What new was spotted? There were two trends reported on from other events which were equally represented at PestEx. First, the increasing number of companies selling digital management and reporting systems, plus virtually every new gadget or widget has to have some sort of digital monitoring device. Second, the range of non-toxic and bio-friendly products continues to grow – being something of a cynic – is this because registration for ‘traditional’ chemical-based products takes so long and is so expensive, so manufacturers seek out quick-to-market ‘natural’ ones, or is this a genuine trend demanded by consumers of pest control services? Or, more likely, a bit of both! One negative though. As commented on before, nearly 10% of exhibitors came from the Far East. Pleased to see them as we are, one worrying observation was that on one of the stands selling electronic fly killers (EFKs) you could easily have thought you were seeing models manufactured by the leading EFK companies in Europe. This was not the case. What were on display were cheaper clones of the European machines. The final word |
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If lost, follow the BPCA footprints…
Take a break in the strategically placed coffee lounge
Plenty to try your hand at… bowling with Goliath Gel
Or aiming for discounts with Babolna Bio