Ticket prices bolster Motor Show success

The British International Motor Show drew more than 411,000 visitors to Excel London during its debut 11-day outing to docklands in July.

Initial attendance figures, once proved by new ABC auditing criteria next month, will show a rise of 24% on equivalent attendance for the 2004 Birmingham event.

Organiser IMIE director Tim Etchells cited ticket pricing as a key contributor to the show’s success.

He said: “On the final Friday we had 45,000 visitors and a high percentage were walk-ups. Most consumer events touch £20 a ticket but from the start we decided on a cap of £12 or £8 in advance.”

Etchells believes around 30% of the total attendance may have used a complimentary ticket – received as part of a £5m overall marketing campaign to promote the move to London – to visit the show, which ran from 20-30 July.

“We don’t apologise for giving away so many free tickets because it was targeted to specific groups and it worked,” he said. “When we took on the event on behalf of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) we had a database comprised of 30,000 midlands-based names. We’ve now grown that to more than 200,000 London names and with any launch you need the numbers to ensure success.

“The challenge going forward will be to convert non-paying visitors into paying visitors but we’ve got off to a flying start, created a fantastic visitor experience and received unanimous support and praise from exhibitors.”

SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan said: “Moving the motor show to London was no small step for the motor industry. But 2006 delivered a giant leap in the show’s standing on the international stage. IMIE worked hard to bring visitors and exhibitors to a show we can all be truly proud of.”

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news/news_story.cfm?ID=4803

Clooney warns of Darfur ’genocide’

Actor George Clooney has told the UN’s most powerful body that if it does not send peacekeepers to Sudan’s Darfur region millions of people would die in what he called the first genocide of the 21st century.

“After September 30 you won’t need the UN You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones,” the actor warned.

The mandate of African Union peacekeepers in the region expires at the end of the month and the Sudanese government has refused to approve their replacement by a UN force.

The Oscar-winner said if UN forces were not sent in, all aid workers would leave and the 2.5 million refugees who depend on them would die.

“The US has called it genocide,” Clooney told council members. “For you it’s called ethnic cleansing. But make no mistake – it is the first genocide of the 21st century. And if it continues unchecked it will not be the last.”

Clooney was addressing Security Council members at an informal briefing organised by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which recently set up a Darfur Commission of Nobel Laureates.

Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, also appealed to council members: “You are the last political recourse of Darfur victims and you can stop it.”

He urged them to send peacekeepers.

“Remember Rwanda?” Wiesel asked. “I do. Six hundred thousand to 800,000 human beings were murdered. We know then as we know now they could have been saved, and they were not.”

He said it was terrible that the UN let the 1994 killings in Rwanda happen and urged the UN to “restore its honour” by taking action in Darfur.

After the meeting ended last night, Wiesel and Clooney gave a brief press conference.

Earlier, Wiesel told The Associated Press in an interview: “If the Security Council does not act it will be blamed for history.”

Clooney and his journalist father Nick Clooney spent five days in Darfur in April, gathering personal stories of the death and suffering that has ravaged the African region. Both Clooneys have continued working since their return to publicise the plight of refugees.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million have fled their homes since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.

A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

Sudan is resisting attempts by the UN to take over a 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force that has been unable to stop the violence in the western Darfur region.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has said the change in peacekeepers would violate the country’s sovereignty and has warned that his army would fight any UN forces sent to Darfur.

“The fact is Bashir is a war criminal… I think he should be warned that if he does not stop he will be accused of crimes against humanity,” Wiesel said.

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 170 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organisations, has organised a rally in New York’s Central Park on Sunday. There will also be dozens of other events across the United States and around the world.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council will meet on Monday in New York, just before this year’s UN General Assembly speeches, to discuss breaking the deadlock in Darfur.

Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

“Because we went through that period of suffering and humiliation we must do something so that other people should not go through any suffering and humiliation,” he said.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/09/15/story276840.html

Step Exhibitions sells three events to Reed

Reed Exhibitions has acquired three shows from organiser Step Exhibitions and made a long-term commitment to keep three of its design events at Earls Court.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, sees the organiser expand its hold on the personal care industry into parts of Asia.

Personal Care Ingredients Asia (PCIA), Personal Care and Homecare Ingredients (PCHI) and Cosmetic and Household Ingredients (CHI) will be brought into a division that currently stages In-Cosmetics in Paris from 17-19 April.

CHI takes place in Warsaw this year and will move to Moscow in 2007. PCHI takes place in the autumn in Mumbai and PCIA is held in Guangzhou in March next year. With recently established offices in Moscow, Delhi and Beijing, Reed will now look to develop the newly acquired events.

In-Cosmetics exhibition director Richard Hesk said: “We now have a global resource available to our customers and a global database of senior buyers from across the cosmetic manufacturing sector.”

Meanwhile a deal to keep Reed’s Design shows 100% Design, 100% Light and 100% Detail at Earls Court has been sealed prior to this month’s London Design Festival. The shows take place at Earls Court from 21-24 September and form a highlight of the annual festival that runs at venues across the capital from 15-30 September.

Reed Exhibitions show director Peter Massey said: “We are particularly pleased to have secured our place at the venue as it provides us with many options to grow the shows, as well as being easily accessible for the local and international design community.”

- ICT Communications, the second company to join Reed Exhibitions’ Hothouse initiative, is to launch its debut event for the contact care industry in Cannes in April 2007. The initiative, launched in 2005 to support entrepreneurialism in the industry, will give ICT Communications access to Reed’s event logistics capability and global marketing expertise.

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news/news_story.cfm?ID=4802

Cash shortage kills off LBEA

Industry trade body the Live Brand Experience Association (LBEA) has been axed after just two years.

The association, which was set up by a 12-strong steering committee in 2004, found that the annual membership fees did not provide enough revenue to fund all its objectives – but was met with disapproval when it sought to raise them to £1,100.

Matthew Bending, who has served as chairman since the association’s inception, said: “I’m disappointed, but ultimately an association is like any business – if you don’t get enough customers you go under. When things like this happen, there are three things you need to look at: that perhaps the offer wasn’t right, the team wasn’t right or the timing wasn’t right. We’ve realised that perhaps the focus from the start was probably over-ambitious.”

Bending agreed that the money generated from membership fees did not cover the trade body’s plans. “When we asked for more funding, everyone said no. To run a conference, an awards and research we needed a budget of X so asked members for Y. They said it was just too expensive.”

Paul Ephremsen, chief executive of brand experience firm ID, was part of the initial steering committee and agreed that the lack of support by many of the members led to the association’s downfall.

“It’s frustrating because there were a number of agencies that put a lot of time and effort into this and then there were agencies that just spent time griping about what needed to be done,” he said.

“You can’t run an association on no money. It’s easy to say on reflection but looking back we could have approached a more selective membership.”

Ephremsen denied any plans to create a more focused association but will instead “refocus ID’s efforts and invest time into its own interests”.

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news/news_story.cfm?ID=4801

Blooms fill the air with Spring on the Big Apple Catwalks

The runways at New York Fashion week have been coming up roses - and a host of other blooms - as designers pay homage to spring flora in their collections for next year. The Oscar de la Renta show, which opened with a pretty poppy-strewn sundress, was an ode to flower power and explored the theme in myriad variations.

A youthful feel infused the show as models in sleeveless, delicate poppy-print dresses wooed the fashion set. The Dominican designer, who is renowned for his love of embroidery, also previewed floral crochet patterns and appliqués - most notably on a stunning marigold gown with graphic flowers around the hemline.

While poppy prints led the way at Oscar’s show, Anna Sui was enjoying a love affair with roses. Her sensational puffball dress and matching coat were covered in the romantic red blooms.

Elsewhere, other couturiers explored the floral trend through carefully crafted detailing. Brit label Marchesa kept to a romantic rose motif, reflecting it in the construction of a pink swirl cocktail dress and with the addition of an outsize rosette at the hip on one cleverly tailored LBD.

At the Marc Jacobs show - which is always one of week’s highlights and this year boasted Demi Moore and Winona Ryder in the front row - flower power, in the form of a sculpted rose detail on one shoulder, added a flirty touch to an otherwise carefully neutral ensemble.

http://www.hellomagazine.com/fashion/2006/09/14/new-york-fashion-/