3,463 Hosted Buyers, 74,000 Appointments

The 30th anniversary edition of ibtm World 2017 closed at the 30 November with over 74,000 appointments (up 23% compared with 2016) having taken place during the three-day event, setting a new record for the show. Some 3,000 exhibiting companies from over 150 countries were joined by 3,463 buyers and thousands of visitors for a packed schedule of meetings, networking and educational sessions. Commenting at the close of the show, ibtm’s Portfolio Director, Kerry Prince, said: “It has been fantastic to see first-hand the positive impact of the changes we’ve made, including introducing an enhanced Hosted Buyer programme, adding two renowned keynote speakers to the education programme and introducing the Start-Up Pavilion for new and emerging tech companies. Ahead of the event we broke our record for the number of appointments made and not only have we received very positive feedback on the quality of those meetings but also, we’ve been able to manage and reduce the number of ‘no-show’ appointments. Of course, we’re always looking to the future and we’re committed to remaining on the cutting edge of the industry. There will be more innovations to come next year, including the introduction of a third keynote speaker session, following the success of this year’s programme. We’re already looking forward to coming back to Barcelona for ibtm World 2018.” “ibtm this year has been really good for us. We’ve had an amazing number of appointments - close to 1,000 have taken place over the three days. In addition, we’ve had more than nine group presentations with approximately 100 Hosted Buyers and we hosted a client event last night in an off-site venue in Barcelona with more than 100 Hosted Buyers in attendance, so the engagement that we’ve experienced this week has really been tremendous”, said Steen Jakobsen, Director, Dubai Business Events & City Operations. www.ibtmworld.com