5 April 2011
Multimodal 2011 – the UK’s and Ireland’s leading event for the freight transport industry – is 25% larger this year than last, despite the uncertain trading conditions in the market.
The event, opened today (Tuesday 5th April 2011) at Birmingham’s NEC with a record number of exhibitors – over 200 stands altogether.
Not only was there a greater number of stands – many exhibitors had expanded their presence considerably at the show. DB Shenker for example had a stand nearly twice the size of last year’s: “We had so many visitors last year, we literally had people queuing up to see us”, remarked Marketing and Communications Manager Carl Hobbis. “The quality of the contacts at Multimodal is always good, and we want to make everyone welcome to see us.”
Multimodal stalwarts DSV, who have come to the show every year since it first started in 2008, were also sporting an impressive stand in the centre of the hall, which was already busy an hour after the show opened. “We’ve increased our success year on year at Multimodal” stated Sales & Marketing Director Chris Malyon. “It’s simply one of the best places to talk to existing customers and to track down new prospects amongst the many manufacturers, exporters and importers that come to this event.”
Word of Multimodal’s reputation as a place to get to know the UK transport business is clearly spreading far and wide: from Russia, JSC Transcontainer had a strong presence at the show, as part of its drive to promote its services from Japan and South Korea to Europe via the Trans Siberian Express Railway in advance of its forthcoming UK share offering. “This is the first time we have exhibited at a UK event, and Multimodal sounded like the most effective way of promoting our company to the UK audience”, their spokeswoman said.
There was a very broad spread of companies taking stands at this year’s show, including port terminal operators, road and rail haulage, shipping companies, airlines , logistics companies, warehouse operators, specialist IT providers and a host of equipment manufacturers.
Newcomers to the event included Geodis Wilson, APL Logistics, Bishopsgate, CargoWise, Direct Rail Services, Klinge, Elddis Transport, Terberg DTS and Laser Transport. APL Logistics was attracted by the event’s reputation, and had made a point of setting up appointments with existing and prospective customers visiting the show. “Although it’s a UK event, the profile of visitors is truly international, and we’re confident of making contacts with customers from all over the globe, including our main markets in the Far East.” Geodis Wilson said it was their first time exhibiting at any event, and had chosen Multimodal in preference to many shows elsewhere in Europe, despite being owned ultimately by French Railways (SNCF). “The calibre of the visitors just seemed so much better, and we’ve been busy since the show opened this morning.”
Simon Clark of logistics software providers CargoWise said he’d been a visitor to the show for the past two years and had been so impressed with the number of visitors and standard of the exhibitors that he felt he needed to exhibit there too. “And I’ve not been disappointed: there’s barely been a quiet moment on my stand so far.”
Seminars provided by the Shippers’ Voice and Industry Briefings by Trade Extensions were often packed to overflowing. One of the most popular was the Media Panel featuring the Editor of IFW Kizzi Nkwocha; Robert Minton-Taylor of Leeds University; Emma Murray, Editor of Heavy Lift and Project Forwarding International; and John Manners-Bell, CEO of Transport Intelligence, which looked at the question of ‘What makes news?’, and examined the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Other well-attended seminars included a tutorial on collaborative logistics, a Customs tutorial and a study on the value of ports in the supply chain.
Trade Extensions held briefings on the use of optimisation tender and contract management and approached to e-sourcing logistics services.
Robert Jervis, Exhibition Director thanked the event’s supporting companies, “The commitment of our exhibitors to Multimodal and the UK market is out-standing. We are all off to a good start and we hope to repay that commitment with record visitor volumes over the remaining two days of the show.”
ENDS
Join Multimodal on the new Twitter site at http://twitter.com/multimodal
About Multimodal:
Taking place from 5th to 7th April 2011 at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Multimodal aims to attract a large group of exhibitors and visitors from across the whole spectrum of freight transport, logistics and supply chain service providers than it ever has before.
Multimodal 2011 is the only UK event that brings together all sectors of freight transport under a single roof. The Seminars and Briefings which are an integral part of the event, have scheduled an enlightening and thought-provoking range of topics, tackled in an interactive fashion by panels of experts or as briefings presented by representatives from centres of excellence. Topics range from insight into the media, customs, container shipping trends, container swaps, security, reducing empty loads and ports’ role in adding value, to e-sourcing, collaborative logistics, supply chain optimisation, key performance indices (KPIs) and logistics data analytics.
For further information about Multimodal 2011, please contact:
Robert Jervis, Event Director,
Clarion Events Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 207 370 8373
E-mail: robert.jervis@clarionevents.com