Midland Epo 2017 "The Last Hurrah"

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.

30^th 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.