As many will already know, this year's show will be the last ever Midland Expo, hence the tag-line "The Last Hurrah". The reasons are explained in the statement from IPMS Birmingham's Chairman, reproduced below.The preparations for the show are now well advanced, with priority invitations having gone out to traders and exhibitors (Clubs and SIGs) who have supported us in recent years. If you are in this category but have not yet received an in invitation please contact the individuals shown below. The priority invitations are valid until the end of April after which any unbooked space will be made available to all-comers on a "first come, first served" basis.
Booking contacts:
Traders; Roland Turner - chairman.ipmsbirmingham@gmail.com
Exhibitors; Matt Nicholls - midlandexpoexhibitor@gmail.com
IPMS
Birmingham Chairman's statement.
30th
November 2016
Following this
year's Midland Expo (2016) the Branch Committee and Show Management
Team undertook, as usual, an analysis of the event and came to the
realisation that, for various reasons, the show would become
untenable within a very few years.
From
a financial standpoint we have seen a year by year reduction in
returns from the show and can predict that there will come a time in
the not too distant future when it will start to become loss making.
Inevitably costs rise each year which can only be offset by
increasing trader fees and entrance prices which we feel would be
counterproductive.
Separate
to the financial considerations there is also the availability of the
organisers. Put simply we are an ageing group - of the six of us
involved this year only two are under sixty and none under fifty - I
am pleased to add that Karl Robinson has since come on board for the
final year which redresses the balance a little. None-the-less it
does mean that a substantial proportion of the organising team are
either retired, semi-retired or nearing retirement, and while that
might be expected to give them more free time, in reality most have
plans or commitments that mean that they will have less time to
devote to running the show.
Other
factors include recent and possible future changes to legislation
regarding public events and ensuring our organisers and members are
properly protected against legal action and covered by public
liability insurance.
Given
the above and not wishing Midland Expo to fade away ignominiously we
took the positive decision to have one last show – Midland Expo
2017 with tag-line (Competition Secretary George Green's suggestion)
“The Last Hurrah”.
Roland
Turner
Chairman
IPMS Birmingham.
