Exhibition venue, conference centre and live-event space, Olympia London, has confirmed organisers are booking for events in larger spaces. The range of events evolving is a clear demonstration of the advantages of the flexible, varied spaces of Olympia London.
The recent £30m redevelopment of Olympia West and Central has provided the venue with new-found flexibility for events of every size, bringing modern facilities and British heritage together.
Organisers of Cloud World Forum at Keynote World Media Limited have recently confirmed bookings for 2015 and 2016 at Olympia Grand, a move from the show’s regular slot in Olympia National. As an event that began life across just three meeting rooms in Olympia Conference Centre, it follows the path of other niche tech events that have blossomed; Ad Tech also started in the conference centre and has been at Olympia National now for several years.
On the consumer side, The London Drum Show is to return to Olympia London bigger and better this November. Instead of just occupying Olympia Conference Centre, it will be staged on two levels, Olympia Central Level Two and Olympia Conference Centre.
Steve Harvey, the founder of Drum Show and events director at Blaze Publishing, said: “By taking up space across two levels, it means we can take on more exhibitors and the existing ones can take bigger stands. It also allows greater capacity for visitors – we were at capacity last year.”
“Our shows are multi-format – static exhibition, combined with seminars, large classrooms and auditoriums for mini gigs. Olympia London ticks all those boxes and has all the areas within 30 seconds walk of each other. We couldn’t have staged the type of event we want anywhere else in London,” he said.
Allergy & Free From, which had its most successful event over the 4-6 July weekend with 30,000 visitors, has also grown organically within Olympia London’s spaces. Starting out as The Allergy Show in Olympia Central in 2004, it grew to Olympia West, then Olympia National in 2013 before taking to the biggest space, Olympia Grand this summer with four co-located shows under the same roof.
Nick Graham, Head of Sales, said: “It’s exciting to work with organisers to see how Olympia London can accommodate their business plans for growth and to witness the evolution of events across our spaces. We spend a lot of time and care on this process, which is reflected in the number of events that we retain and help grow.”