New Venues Boost Expomedia Group's Results
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 10/17/2005
The opening of two more venues in Expomedia Group's chain of EXPO XXI Intl. Expocentres has helped boost this year's bookings by 80 percent and next year's by 35 percent so far.
An EXPO XXI venue opened in May in Amsterdam, Netherlands. A month later, Cologne, Germany, welcomed an EXPO XXI center with 2,000 square meter (21,528 square feet) of exhibit space. This December, an EXPO XXI venue with 2,500 sq. m. (26,910 sq. ft.) of exhibit space is set to open in Belgrade, Serbia.
Also this year, the London-based Expomedia took over management of the India Expo Centre EXPO XXI, an air-conditioned facility outside New Delhi.
With plans underway for a center in Moscow, and existing centers in Warsaw and Katowice, Poland, Expomedia owns or manages seven exhibition facilities.
The company recently renamed CEE Exhibitions, its organizing arm, Expomedia Events.
Expomedia forecasts 2005 sales of €25 million ($29.8 million), compared with €15 million ($17.9 million) in 2004.
According to Expomedia officials, the company is focusing on opportunities in China and India, and plans to expand the 4-year-old Warsaw venue, which features 10,000 sq. m. (107,639 sq. ft.) of exhibit space.
In other changes, the company announced that Roger Shashoua will remain board chairman but give up his executive duties starting next January. Mark, his son, will continue to serve as CEO.
In addition, Fred Arp, executive director of Telegraaf Media Groep, will join the seven-member Expomedia board. Telegraaf, the Dutch media group, recently bought a 10-percent stake in Expomedia for £6.5 million ($11.4 million). The two companies partnered on Expo XXI Amsterdam and are working together to launch consumer and trade exhibitions in Netherlands.
