One of the UK’s largest property investors shows attended by thousands of landlords says it is getting ready to run its first face-to-face event for over two years.
The last time landlords gathered at the Property Investor Show was in April 2019 but subsequent planned events during 2020 and earlier this year were scuppered by successive Covid lockdowns or social distancing rules.
Show director Mike Doyle tells LandlordZONE he is confident that, given the continued relaxation of Covid restriction in the UK including the re-opening of nightclubs and the ongoing vaccination programme, the show will go ahead on as planned on the 15th and 16th October at London’s Excel.
But will anyone turn up? Doyle says some 5,000 people attended its final pre-Covid event and that pre-registration figures from its website suggest that it will achieve around 85% of its pre-Covid footfall.
Travel restrictions
“This has less to do with the public’s reluctance to attend and more to do with some overseas exhibitors’ inability or reluctance to come to the UK at the moment,” he says.
“Travel arrangements are changing all the time so we’ll see where we are in a few months’ time, but if for example people are unable to travel in from the UAE to exhibit, then people looking to invest there are less likely to come to the show.”
Doyle says the event will still be run in a Covid-compliant manner with wider aisles, more spaced-out seating and a recommendation to wear a mask.
“This is driven as much by the requirements of the venue as it is by us,” he says.
“During the pandemic we’ve looked at doing an online exhibition and, while virtual technology works for conferences, it’s still got a long way to go before it adequately replicates the face-to-face exhibition hall experience.”
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