It’s showtime!
The Event Production Show this week has always been a source of optimism for the industry and even for the wider world.
I’m excited to be heading for The Event Production Show (EPS) at Excel, London, over the next couple of days. It’s one of the UK’s key trade shows for events, including festivals and live music, showcasing the sector’s latest technology and service innovations. Having been involved with it in some capacity since the late 1990s and coming back to the industry after five years, I confess to being the Rip Van Winkle at the party.
I’m pretty sure the show had no app the last time I visited (which probably says more about me than the event), and there’s a whole load of entirely new innovations which either didn’t exist pre-covid, or were just early prototype versions.
A brief look at the exhibitor list reveals old hands including temporary space specialist Arena Group, event design and logistics provider GL Events, and the outdoor events association NOEA alongside services that were mere “lightbulb moments” just a few years ago, such as DroneSwarm, DavLav (offering collapsible portable loos!) or event management software Festiware.
The show boasts 160 exhibitors, about 4,000 visitors and over 80 speakers but, numbers aside, it’s where the key decision-makers in the events world hook up with the suppliers they work with throughout the rest of the year, so it’s a great place for exchanging ideas and best practice.
Among the seminars are speakers such as Steve Allen (Crowd Safety), Mark Hamilton (Showstop), Conal Dodds (Crosstown Concerts), Steve Durham (We are FSTVL) and Graham Brown (Brown Fox Comms) discussing the global event safety standard Showstop; Jess Lardner (Homestead Festival) and Steve Homer (AEG Presents) discussing ‘Creativity – event concepts for the future’; production manager Cornelia Hammarlund and Millie Devereux (The Fair) offering a table top planning exercise around a disaster at an festival site; and Laura Armstrong (LS Events) and Oliver Guy-Watkins (PMY Group) on Transforming music festivals through data & AI.
The show has always seemed to exude optimism, as suppliers showcase services and technology in the events world that often find their way into everyday life - and surely that’s a sentiment we need in spades at the moment. So, as well as taking in a few of the seminars, I’m looking forward to talking to new exhibitors, rediscovering old colleagues and exploring how the sector will shape up in the years ahead. If you’re an event professional and want to meet at the show, please do get in touch with me, and watch this space for EPS news in the next few days!
© Mike Gartside
