The 30th anniversary edition of ibtm world 2017, which took place at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, 28-30 November, produced 74,000 appointments, which organisers claim is a new record for the show.
Some 3,000 exhibiting companies from 150 countries were joined by 3,463 buyers at the trade show.
Organiser Reed’s portfolio director, Kerry Prince, said of the changes made to the show format for 2017: “In the 12 months preceding this year’s event, we spent a huge amount of time analysing and sourcing data and speaking to our customers to truly understand how we can best service their needs. On the back of this we made several changes and innovations, 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.”
She added: “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 – and seen deals done on the show floor – but also, we’ve been able to manage and reduce the number of ‘no-show’ appointments – all of which makes a real difference to our attendees.”
Prince promised more innovations to come next year, including the introduction of a third keynote speaker session. Despite the political tensions in the destination, Prince said the show was commited to the city for 2018.
The ACS Knowledge Village this year included keynote speakers -former director general of the UK Security Service, Dame Stella Rimington, and CEO of Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, Yancey Strickler.
