Located at The Trafford CentreBritain's most successful shopping and leisure destinationThe North's largest events & exhibition venue. second largest exhibition space outside London. 28,000 square metres of versatile space. free on-site parking for 3,000 cars. over 200 shops in The Trafford Centre. over 60 restaurants, bars & cafés on the doorstep. exciting leisure facilities at Trafford Quays Leisure Village. immediate access to M60. excellent public transport links. 4 hotels within one-mile radiusFor further information call 0161 870 9800or email info@eventcity.co.ukTalk to the team to discover howEventCity can meet your commercial objectives

INTERVIEW18 www.exhibitionnews.co.ukow did you get into exhibitions?My career in media kicked off at Reed where I trained as a business journalist and worked for five years before joining Emap in 1991. I've spent two-thirds of my time here in consumer and across exhibitions, awards and principally magazines and worked my way up to group managing director. I switched to B2B nine years ago. It's fair to say that business publishing and events weren't seen as the sexy side of Emap's business, but it proved the best thing I ever did. Initially I was brought in to run a group of mixed media businesses loosely market focused on media, fashion and retail. The business was then broken up and sold off in 2007 - the consumer division to Bauer Media, and the part I look after [Emap Connect] to a JV between Apax and the Guardian Media Group. Once that was done, we decided to restructure the business by media discipline. I now focus on exhibitions and festivals, because it's the simplest way to share best practice and to grow quickly.is there more crossover of exhibition and festivals/broader live events today?Yes and we're investing in and expanding the content proposition of our shows. Across the whole Emap business, we aim to score highly in three areas: The provision of intelligence, inspiration and access. Emap is unique in having the blend of market leaders across different disciplines. The show will do the 'access' part of our proposition well by bringing together critical and appropriate buyers and sellers. That might not match what we do intelligence-wise, where you're delivering data. You also have to make shows enjoyable to attend as well as must-attend business events, and that's where inspiration comes in. The different parts of Emap each have their own strengths and we can draw on those to assist each other.how important is it to take a holistic media approach to a brand?Our customers don't wake up in the morning and say 'I'm an exhibitor or visitor'. They're just working within a particular market sector. If they like interacting with that brand, then they want that brand to manifest in forms they can engage with on their terms. Customers are born media-neutral. You have to adopt that stance in your business, especially as the world is becoming increasingly customer-led. Digital manifestations have brought more accountability to media propositions and customers are generally more demanding. If that requires you to have a multiple offering, you'd better sort out what that means. what is on top of your to-do list?Since the business was acquired, most of our time has been spent strengthening the core proposition of our events. Top-line revenue growth has been good and most has been invested back into the business to better our performance under the three headings I referred to before. It's also about constantly debating what level of customer experience we want to afford: You can't give the ultimate all the time, as it leads to bankruptcy. Additional things for me are around trying to internationalise the business. This is happening in two ways: Bringing more overseas customers into UK shows, and looking at high-growth markets to see which of our brands are most appropriate to launch internationally. Thirdly, it's that digital challenge, which is a media challenge really. We have recently CustomerhCeo of emap Connect Malcolm Gough has chalked up a long and diverse career at the event and publishing company. He talks to EN about the changing face of exhibition customers and the reasons behind its latest international business pushled foCus