In preparation for the start of the Business North West exhibition and conference, which will take place at Manchester Central this week from 19-20 November, organisers Nationwide Media Group have given training to a record 163 exhibitors.

“In response to the more competitive trading environment in today’s uncertain financial times, exhibitors from our business-to-business event came out in force to learn how to maximise their return on investment (ROI) – an excellent indicator for the future of events and exhibitions,” said Nationwide Media Group Managing Director Scott Hider.

The exhibitor training consisted of an introductory speech Hider, followed by an ‘Exhibiting for results’ masterclass from exhibition strategist John Blaskey. Taking the companies back to basics, Blaskey asked each one to identify their objectives, key messages and to really think about how they can deliver them, with some insightful thoughts on how people have achieved success before. This was followed swiftly by a ‘Maximise the power of PR’ session from Berkley PR Director Sara Lewis.

“This is a record uptake for the exhibitor training and we wanted to highlight it as a positive indicator for the future, with businesses valuing the additional services which an exhibition organiser can provide to help them get ROI,” said Hidier. “We feel it’s very important to offer training to exhibitors, making sure they set objectives that we can use to measure the show against, and we’ll be bringing it through to our new show, Business Midlands. which we are launching in 2009.”

Commenting on the training, Business North West exhibitor Lisa Duffy, business development manager for MCL Manchester, said: “I attended the course and found it very informative. Despite having exhibited before I learnt a lot of new tips for running my exhibition stand and went away enthused and raring to go!"