The Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Show has announced a change of venue for 2008. After ten years at Thorpe Park in Surrey, the industrial and manufacturing exhibition will be relocating to a new facility at Farnborough in Hampshire. The dates of the show - 6th and 7th of February 2008 - remain unchanged.
Farnborough International Limited, organisers of the Farnborough International Airshow, announced last week the launch of Farnborough International Venue and Events (FIVE), a new venture to open up the site as a permanent exhibition venue.
The new FIVE venue offers many benefits. Unlimited space for expansion and demonstration purposes, triple the amount of free car parking, and a wide selection of hotels and restaurants make Farnborough an ideal base for the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Show as it enters its second decade.
Phil Valentine, managing director of organisers ETES, said, “The growth of the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show in recent years meant that we’d reached the limits of what we could achieve on the Thorpe Park site. Redevelopment plans for the Park would have made it increasingly unsuitable for our needs in the future. The opening-up of the Farnborough site as a permanent exhibition venue has given us a unique and timely opportunity to secure a valuable tenancy slot at a world-renowned exhibition site. It offers us future stability and greater scope to improve our exhibitors' and visitors' event experience. We are very excited to be part of this new development and delighted to be able to deliver the benefits of this prestigious venue to our clients.”
Farnborough’s location, just 12 miles south of Thorpe Park, is right in the middle of the show’s visitor catchment area and means that for the majority of visitors to the Southern shows, travel times will be significantly reduced. Those travelling by road from the West and the M4 corridor will be able to bypass the busy South West section of the M25 altogether, while the major industrial centres of the South coast are within 50 minutes by car or train. Central London is only 35 minutes away via the express service from London Waterloo.
The site also offers scope for future growth and development and ETES have already added over 25% more space for 2008. Phil Valentine said, “Taking advantage of the new opportunities of the site, we are already well advanced in our plans for a major new attraction alongside the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Show in 2008 and will be announcing details in the near future.”