As a corporate venue finder, I’m constantly seeking opportunities to stay ahead of the game, nurture relationships, and discover new venues, suppliers, and ideas to bring back to my clients. One of the best ways I achieve this is by attending industry exhibitions. Whether you’re a corporate event manager, PA, or EA, exhibitions are a goldmine of inspiration and resources—and a huge time-saver for you!
Let’s face it: your schedules are packed. The idea of taking time out of the office to attend an event might seem daunting, but the payoff is enormous. Exhibitions gather a wide range of venues, hotels, suppliers, and service providers under one roof, giving you a one-stop-shop to explore and connect. If you can’t attend them all, that’s where I come in—I attend to stay updated, catch up with suppliers, and bring back the best options for your events.
Here’s a glimpse at some of the key exhibitions I’ll be attending in 2025 along with my personal insights and experiences:
January: Micebook EXPO at Convene Sancroft, St Paul’s, London
Taking place on January 27-28, this two-day event is designed by event planners for event planners. With over 170 global exhibitors and over 400 buyers, it’s the perfect way to kick off the year by learning, developing, and collaborating with the industry’s best. Their varied content programme enables covers topics such as AI, behavioural science and future-proofing events via interactive keynotes, panel sessions and workshops. I’ll be there to reconnect with familiar faces and discover fresh ideas for your events. I’ve booked my 12+ appointments, allocated time for the excellent educational seminars and as I have been approved as a hosted buyer am staying overnight at South Place Hotel, a hotel I book every year for different clients so another great opportunity to keep up to date with their latest developments and team! Micebook is a fully immersive event where taking the time out of the office is a priority to enable the best value from this show.
February: London Summer Event Show & International Confex
February 4-5 marks the London Summer Event Show at Freemasons’ Hall. Whilst it may feel a little odd to be planning summer events in the midst of February, the London Summer Show is always a great opportunity to get ahead of the game with summer event inspiration, but be prepared, most key dates for larger events will already have been booked by those early birds holding annual events looking to return to their favourite venue! Having said that, the London Summer Event Show has great alternative and quirky options as well as venues with ‘pop up’ spaces such as rooftops and courtyards you may not know about the rest of the year. A great exhibition for planning ahead for the summer season (this year or next!). You can whizz round this show in a couple of hours, plus they have an option to attend Tuesday evening after work or Wednesday during the day giving great flexibility for all diaries!
February 26-27 International Confex returns to ExCeL, London, showcasing a comprehensive mix of venues and suppliers. This show has been going for 40 years (yes 40 years!) in various forms and is testament to the resilience and adaption required for this industry. Confex was the first exhibition I ever attended (about 25yrs ago!) and was my entry level whilst working for a hotel group. I loved that I got to talk all day about the hotels I worked for, listen to buyers’ requirements and discuss face to face about how we could work together. That was back before scanners, and we all had a clipboard and pen to take everyones details down. Fast forward to 2025 and this year boasts 7 booming content theatres providing 150 free to attend conference sessions, with a programme packed with 60+ industry-leading speakers, 300 + exhibitors over a range of venues, tech, hospitality, team building, event management, PR, Drinks companies and everything in-between! With 5000+ attendees it is a busy show but nicely spread out with good size booths for suppliers and buyers alike to network and catch up on all their latest requirements and developments. This is also a great introductory show for new people to the industry including students, plus Excel is so much easier to get to, now it’s linked to the Elizabeth line!
March: CHS Leeds
On March 25, I’ll be at CHS Leeds at the Royal Armouries. This show’s key message is
Discover – Explore the very best hotels, venues, destinations and event suppliers from the UK and Europe.
Connect – Network with new connections from across the industry and meet up with colleagues and friends.
Inspire – Focus on your personal and professional development with our inspirational educational sessions.
I love this show run by a powerhouse of strong women constantly striving to ensure the wellbeing, connection and the ROI is reached by all, not an easy task! This is the smaller of the two shows (Birmingham is later in the year)
This is a flexible show with various options to attend depending on your time, either popping in for a couple of hours, a day guest including lunch (buyers only), or like me living over an hour away as a hosted buyer which includes the networking party and staying the night prior! A hosted buyer pass comes with a commitment of 4 appointments at the show which is the lowest commitment for a hosted buyer of all the shows, I then love walking around this show as this one isn’t too big and you are not rushed, as this exhibition set up is shell scheme for the exhibitors you are welcomed on those stands with time and space.
This is a unique exhibition as you’ll find here more independent hotels and venues from all over the UK (and further) who don’t tend to attend the other UK exhibitions (it’s not all about London!) and sometimes I only see these people/venues at this show once a year so a must for my diary. You could do this show in a couple of hours but I do like to block the whole day out to meet as many venues as I can, watch one or two seminars/educational sessions and take time to network with so many people I now know in the industry, it’s amazing what taking the time can do to learn about the little gems, refurbishments and for me, constant hugging with the many people I know that welcome me to this exhibition. (Hugs are not mandatory!)
April: The BNC Show
The Business Networking Club (BNC) Show takes place on April 1 at Central Hall Westminster. It’s one of my favourite exhibitions because it’s laser-focused on the needs of corporate event professionals. This event usually takes place in a beautiful historic room for all the exhibitors, another room for seminars and a smaller room for coworking. Food is bought round to you all day including breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon tea so you never go hungry enabling you to choose when you want to go, plus there are plenty of tea/coffee/water stations dotted around the room.
The BNC show could take you between 2-4 hours depending on if you attend the seminars. I end up being there most of the day as this show is quite heavily London based venues which is my key market, so I have lots of amazing people to catch up with, new people to meet and sometimes I am on a panel too! This is always at an easy to get to location and the team at Central Hall Westminster are super welcoming! As this is the only exhibition that is a family run show, they think of everything to ensure you have a comfortable day in what can be quite a fast-paced environment, all exhibitors have 1 pop up stand so you can move through the show quite quickly allowing a more in-depth follow up after. All attendees are qualified by the BNC team individually and there is no set number of appointments required to attend.
June: The Meetings Show
Held on June 25-26 at ExCeL London, this show delivers access to over 650 exhibitors, so this is your biggest show for event buyers looking for inspiration. With destination management companies, venues, conference centres, and technology suppliers from all over the world this attracts over 1,500 qualified meetings professionals.
It’s a bit early for the 2025 programme to be just yet, so to give you an idea, the 2024 Education programme was for igniting ideas, creating breakthroughs, and shaping the future of the meetings, events and incentives world. These were split across 4 themes: INFORM – INSPIRE – INNOVATE – IMPACT. with sessions featuring hackathons, a Neurodiverse Design Challenge, and an innovation showdown, this was about pushing your boundaries and unleashing your creativity.
As a hosted buyer you also have access to the Hosted Buyer Insight Forum the day prior so you could in effect spend three whole days here. Especially as it’s also next to the business travel tech and the business travel show Europe so you can easily go back and forth throughout the three shows to enhance your networking and education.
Alternatively, as I have done in previous years, check out who’s exhibiting before hand, research what seminars you would like to see, plan your day and pop in for a couple of hours, keep a focussed approach so you don’t get sidetracked with all the incredible content and suppliers there (unless you want to!)
October: CHS Birmingham
As a familiar face at CHS events, I’m thrilled to return to CHS Birmingham on October 28 at the ICC. This show balances work and life priorities while offering a brilliant mix of exhibitors and education sessions tailored to busy event professionals.
The Birmingham show is like the Leeds show (see above!), but on a bigger scale! Run buy the same powerhouse of women, not only does it feature the fantastic Event Education Programme, but it also boasts the ever-popular PA Lounge.
Over the past two years, the PA Lounge has been a real hit, offering a dedicated space for PAs, EAs, and office managers to stay in the loop about exciting new venues and brush up on the essentials with back-to-basics sessions. I’ve had the pleasure of delivering some of these seminars myself, and it’s been such a rewarding experience to connect with so many professionals in the industry.
Similar to Leeds, you could whizz round this exhibition in a couple of hours, but I do block the whole day out to make the most of my time and meeting the wonderfully friendly people there.
Why It Matters
By attending these exhibitions, I’m able to:
- Reconnect with trusted suppliers to ensure I’m up to date on what’s available.
- Discover new venues and services that could add value to your corporate events.
- Save you time by doing the legwork, ensuring you only hear about the very best options.
- Achieve ROI by doing my homework beforehand—research who’s attending and head in with a clear, focused plan.
Alternatively, if you have the chance, you can attend these exhibitions yourself! They provide an excellent opportunity to connect directly with suppliers and venues, gather inspiration, and perhaps even bump into me—I’m always happy to chat and share insights.
