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.

Best in show, Midland Expo 2016

Post show review.

So, Midland Expo is over for another year and the organisers are now taking a well earned rest for a few days. There are of course a few jobs to be done such as producing a final set of accounts to see if it was all worthwhile financially. We will then have to review the show and start look forward to what we are going to do next year.

Meanwhile our friends at Leicester Modellers have arlready published a review of the show on their own website, complete with a photo gallery.

Less than two weeks to go.

With less than two weeks to go until Midland Expo 2016 thing are finally coming together.

We have a full compliment of clubs and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), for a full list go to the Exhibitors Page.

Meanwhile the almost complete list of traders can be found on the Traders Page. At this stage we are just awaiting confirmation from one trader to compete the list.

Midland Expo 2016 flyers now available.

 
The Midland Expo 2016 flyers have been printed and will be available at Scale ModelWorld.

Date for Midland Expo 2016 announcement.

IPMS Birmingham is pleased to announce that Midland Expo 2016 will take place on Sunday 31st July 2016.

The venue will once again be Leasowes Sports Centre, Kent Road, Halesowen. B62 8PJ.

Club/SIG and trader invitations will be sent out in the near future to regular supporters.

One Week to Midland Expo 2015

With just a week to go until this year's Midland Expo everything is now in place for the show to take place.

 A timetable of the day's activities can be viewed on the Timetable page or alternatively be downloaded as a PDF.

As announced in a previous post this year's show is being dedicated to the memory of our old friend Bill Nicholls who passed away in May, he was a long standing, indeed a founder member of IPMS Birmingham and there will be a special display of his models along with photographs commemorating his life.

There is also the new feature, the Social Media Modellers Meet, Greet and Display Area, which we hope will prove to be popular with those people who interact with each other via forums and the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Details of the clubs, SIGs and traders attending can be found on the Exhibitors and Traders pages.

The car parking will be once again marshaled by our members with assistance from the centre's staff, we would ask that visitors be considerate and park as close as is practical to the next vehicle thus maximising the space available. There are three parking areas on site, the front car park for traders and exhibitors, the side park for IPMS Birmingham members and exhibitors and the rear car park for visitors. There is also an off-site overflow car park which visitors will be directed to should the rear car park become full. Please also note that there are disabled spaces in the front car par which should not be used unless you have the relevant badge.  Centre staff will also be asking for small voluntary donations from visitors which will go towards the upkeep of the centre figures in the region of 20 to 50 pence have been suggested.

We look forward to seeing many of our old friends and meeing a good many new ones, until next Sunday, see you there.