PestEx 2015 breaks all records

Of the 92 exhibitors attending, 44 had come from overseas. Looking at the UK-based exhibitors, the majority were either involved in product exporting or are the UK-based part of a multi-national company. As BPCA chief executive, Simon Forrester, commented: “It is clear the majority of our exhibitors now sell products across international boundaries, and PestEx provides them with a perfect platform to reach pest management professionals from across the globe.”

But it wasn’t just the exhibitors that came from overseas – so did a large percentage of the exhibition visitors.

The official figures released by BPCA record that over the two days a total of 2,242 people attended (1,788 if you exclude exhibitor personnel). Of these totals, 23% came from outside of the UK.

As is usually the way with such events, the first day recorded the highest attendance figures – a 19% increase over the 2013 event – and it was certainly extremely busy late morning and over the lunch-time period.

Although quieter, the second day (Thursday) gave everyone the opportunity to spend more time with each visitor – not to mention the opportunity for many of the exhibitors to find time to leave their own stands and have a look-around. 261 delegates obviously felt one day was not enough as they clocked-in on both days.

This year the organisers recorded attendance in a much more sophisticated manner, as the bar code on each and every person’s name badge was scanned as they arrived. Likewise, scanners were made available to exhibitors who could scan visitors to their stands.

As BPCA’s events officer, Lauren Carter explains: “Going forward this will greatly help us to benchmark ourselves and ensure the show grows year on year, with accurate figures and an interesting breakdown of numbers.”

Silent seminars
But the delegate counter wasn’t the only new piece of equipment in use by the organisers. Historically, running alongside the exhibition is a comprehensive seminar and technical demonstration area. Hearing what the presenters were saying whilst not deafening those on the exhibition stands has always been somewhat of a challenge. This time-around it was ‘silent seminars’. Delegates wore headphones and the speakers were miked-up, so any unnecessary noise was kept to a minimum.

“By using this headphone system we not only gave every person in the seminars the opportunity to hear our speakers clearly, but it also allowed us to record the sessions, copies of which will be on the BPCA website later in April,” explained Lauren Carter.

With a total of 27 presentations, which ran concurrently, it was often hard to pick which one to attend. This certainly proved a challenge for the Pest reporting team! Topics ranged from the more obscure, such as tree bumble bees, to more main-stream subjects as wildlife licensing, wasp behaviour and pest control from the client’s perspective to, predictably, rodenticides and the future of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGAR’s).

Read our reports on several of these sessions on-line (click to read about SGARs, rodenticide resistance or wait until forthcoming issues of Pest magazine.

For the future
Planning ahead, the dates for PestEx 2017 were revealed (22 and 23 March 2017) also at ExCeL again.

However, if you can’t wait until then, you could join BPCA at it’s new roving sister show, PPC Live, which will take place on 16 March 2016 at the East of England Showground near Peterborough.

 The City of London nearby, ExCeL is the home for PestEx

BPCA president – Martin Harvey – cuts the ribbon

There is much to see on exhibitors’ stands

Delegates came from near and far. Michel Bayoud (left) of Boecker Public Health, Lebanon with Mazen Zou’bi from the Arab Pest Control Center

BASF took the opportunity to launch two new Storm formulations for the UK market

A key part of proceedings. Delegates networking

Listening intently – but not a sound to be heard for those around – the silent seminars