Show Update

The London Vet Show picks up two major awards. It’s officially the best launch show in any market!

The London Vet Show has recently enjoyed two major accolades including being honoured with the prestigious Best Lunch Event award by the Association of Event Organisers (AEO). The award was presented by Alastair McGowan at Wembley in June at the event industry’s biggest gathering. The London Vet Show topped a line up of six UK and international events on the shortlist.

 

It was praised for the innovative concept and superb event execution of the inaugural event. “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this award and to be recognised as the best new event by the toughest judges of all – our peers in the events industry.” says Rob Chapman, London Vet Show Event Manager. “A lot of hard work went into producing the event. We had a concept that the veterinary profession as a whole seemed to really support; and working with partners including the British Veterinary Association, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the Royal Veterinary College were able to turn it into a reality”.

 

Jill Maddison, Director of Professional development at the Royal Veterinary College who collected the award with the event management team from CloserStill Media comments. “It’s wonderful that the event has received this event industry recognition – to match the warm reception it’s had within the veterinary profession. As Director of the Royal Veterinary College CPD Unit I am excited to be once again coordinating the clinical CPD program at the London Vet Show. The program in 2010 will be practical, relevant and inspiring CPD that meets the needs of practising veterinary surgeons in all forms of small animal practice.”

 

The Association of Event Organisers (AEO) is the trade body representing companies which conceive, create, develop or manage trade and consumer events. Its 100 members include EMAP Communications, Daily Mail Group and  Reed Exhibitions. The AEO Excellence Awards recognises and celebrates organisers’ achievements, standards of excellence from venues and service quality by suppliers and contractors throughout the industry.

 

Held at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday 22nd June the event was attended by more than 1,000 of the UK’s leading event and conference organisers.

 

The London Vet Show website has also been officially recognised, scooping the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Interactive Media Awards 2010. The site was described as an extremely challenging award to win and the site was praised for a very high standard of planning, execution and overall professionalism. Our thanks go to Wicked Web who are our web design agency. We have worked with them on more than ten different events now since 2006 and they have provided excellent creative and ongoing support in that time.

 

For 2010 we are making some amendments to the site. As well as getting a face lift, with our new campaign being integrated into the look and feel of the site, we are also working on highlighting the exhibition component of the event more. Part of this is to have specific pages within the visitor section highlighting key products and services.

 

Being listed on relevant pages is free of charge and is a great way to ensure buyers with a specific interest know you are there. It is also possible to sponsor a section. This will secure top billing in the relevant section as well as the opportunity to get branding, a link from the page and the opportunity to write the introductory copy to the key product and service page. VRCC are sponsoring the Referral Centre Page and Pfizer are sponsoring the Pharmaceutical Page.

 

Please contact Rob Hotchin on 01926 485151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com to check on availability for other key products and services pages.

Delegate and Promotions Update

We have now passed the 1200 mark with paid delegates - massively ahead of last year and ahead of where we were expecting to be. And as our broadcast marketing campaign is about to start in earnest the signs are this is just the start!

 

Anecdotally we are getting large numbers of vets registering following recommendations from last year’s delegates. Our promotional campaign should help push numbers even more. The highlights of the campaign are as follows

 

Advertising - This year we will run 50% more ads. We have a schedule of more than thirty ads featuring full colour pages and impactful cover promotions. If you have missed it in the press here is a link to the ads we are running to give you a taste.

 

Inserts - Backing this up everywhere we run ads we will also insert promotional fliers. These will include the full conference programme as well as details on exhibition features and all exhibitors.

Direct Mail - Just to make sure, we have once again partnered with the RCVS to mail every practicing qualified vet contactable by post. We’ll be sending them each two mailings.

 

That’s the print campaign. In total it will deliver more than 400,000 impacts. Digitally it’s backed up by more than 100,000 emails we will be sending through partners and to the lists we have developed in house. Other online activity includes search with some targeted PPC Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising backing up the natural search that already means we have some excellent first and non-scroll down Google rankings including many first places!. We also have more than 400 sites (growing all the time) with inbound links and are developing a great twitter following and Facebook friends.

 

We also know from last year how effective a direct approach is and have now added to our telemarketing team who are now actively contacting all practices in the UK to make them aware of the event.

 

So a total of more than 500,000 impacts are about to be created to support the show. We are proud to be partnering with the BVA, SPVS, VPMA, ISFM, BVDA, Vet Times, Veterinary Practice, In Practice, Vet Record, UK Vet, vetsurgeon.org, vetnurse.org. In conjunction with them we will be providing a series of offers for vets to book tickets. Our goal – to let everyone know about the event and ensure none have cost as an impediment to book so we can deliver a volume audience for you.

 

We are doing everything possible to drive a massive attendance once again and really deliver for our exhibitors! We are fast running out of stands so if you want to take advantage please contact us.

 

There are free opportunities for you to send discounted tickets to your customers to add value to your participation and a range of free value added opportunities. And if you want to piggy back that multi-impact campaign and win valuable branding there are still some remaining, and very cost effective, opportunities to get on board.

 

To find out more about our plans and  to check out what we can offer you please contact either Rob Chapman or Rob Hotchin on 01926 485 151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com.

More than 200 exhibitors already signed up

Goddard’s Veterinary Group recently became the 200th company to sign up to exhibit at the London Vet Show. Since then another spate of bookings sees the show with a little over 210 exhibitors and just over ten stands left on the expanded floor plan.

 

The show now features all the major vet chains and leading referral centres, it also boasts every major pharmaceutical company, all the top pet nutritional brands and major suppliers of specialist veterinary equipment, software and business services as well as leading pet consumer products suppliers.

 

The exhibition area of the show has already been expanded twice and we are now at the point where there is simply nowhere else to put stands. To get the latest plan with availability please contact Rob Hotchin on 01926 485 151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com

Major new sponsors announced for London Vet Show

Pfizer, Novartis and Woodley have confirmed they will be Platinum Event Partners of the show this year as part of their lecture and show activity sponsorships. Other companies who have confirmed various sponsorships include

 

Janssen, Royal Canin, Norbrook, CEVA , Pet Protect, Virbac, Protexin, J.A.K Marketing, VRCC, RA Accountants, Dick White Referrals, Dermapet UK, Pet Memorials, Burns Pet Nutrition, Farewell My Pet, A. Gibson Taxation Services, Quicktag, IDEXX, Veterinary Endoscopy Services, Clinivet, Supreme, and Vetoquinol with more to be announced soon!

 

These sponsorships get you additional coverage on the website, our promotions and at the event. Some lectures that may get an audience of well over 1,000 vets are also still available – offering the opportunity to have prominent branding and details of attendees.

 

So if you are interested in winning great coverage in the conference, leads, prominence within the exhibition, valuable links to your own site or have a specific launch or promotion its worth calling Rob Hotchin on 01926 485151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com  to see what it might cost you – we hope you will be pleasantly surprised at the value we can offer.

Speaking opportunities at the London Vet Show

For those who are interested in actually being part of the speaker programme at the London Vet Show there are still two ways you can get directly involved in the speaker programme at the show.

 

We will have a series of workshops and currently Woodley’s, Novartis, Dermapet UK and Dick White have confirmed they will be running these. The workshops run in a dedicated theatre, we promote them on the web site and in promotions and will get details of all attendees and any who register. There are three slots remaining if you are interested. These could be used to detail a new product or area of expertise.

 

If you are a supplier of business services you may also be interested in getting involved in the panel sessions on revenue generation or improving profitability within our main business programme. If you feel you have something to say on these areas of benefit to the audience attending our business programme please get in touch with Rob Hotchin on 01926 485 151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com

 

Three new exciting features add to the appeal of the London vet Show exhibition

A series of new features will add to the appeal of the exhibition floor at the London Vet Show and provide networking and educational opportunities for delegates as well as new lead generation opportunities for suppliers of business services and pet consumer products.

 

The Veterinary Business Booster is a special new advice area for delegates where we invite providers of business services to offer one-to-one advice and in return get speaking and editorial opportunities as well as the opportunity to be positioned as a leading supplier and pick up valuable leads.

 

Building on the fact that we have the best attended business conference specifically for vets in Europe we are providing the advice centre directly adjacent to the theatre hosting our business programme. Suppliers getting involved can benefit from a great location as well as the other benefits. And we will work hard to ensure delegates come and seek you out for guidance. It’s the perfect way to be introduced to likely prospects at the event. If you provide business services to veterinary practices and want to know more please get in touch with Rob Hotchin on 01926 485 151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com

 

Retail Innovations is a special area where we highlight the newest, most exciting and well conceived pet consumer products. We have devised a special package packed with value for suppliers and provided a highlighted area in the show to make it as easy as possible for vets to find you.

 

We have limited supplier opportunities by category and are already sold out in some, so if you have an innovative pet product and see the veterinary channel as a potential way to market with it please don’t delay in contacting us to see how we can promote you. Call Rob Hotchin on 01926 485 151 or email Rob at rob.hotchin@closerstillmedia.com  to find out more.

 

The other major new feature for 2010 is one we are providing directly in response to demand from our delegates. Top of the list of things to add to the show based on feedback last year was a bar. No big surprise there perhaps! What we are providing we hope will both surprise and delight our delegates.

 

“The Waiting Room” themed Bar will not just provide a suitable place to rest, catch up with friends and enjoy a drink. It will also be a working demonstration of cutting edge design and feature best practice ideas for vets interested in the retail side of their practice. So delegates will leave having been refreshed and we hope at least a little inspired.

 

Great news for prospective exhibitors is that the stand directly next to this “must visit” feature is now available. So if you are interested in a stand that should get both regular stand traffic and great visibility in front of our vet delegates please contact us now!