Exhibition News and Olympia. The heart and soul of the exhibition industryTo book your tickets for the Exhibition News Awards 2012 or to nominate for a company or individual award visit www.exhibitionnews.co.uk/awardsAWARDSEXHIBITION29th MARCH 2012OLYMPIA, LONDONSomeone has saved the date. Have you?AWARDSEXHIBITION29th MARCH 2012OLYMPIA, LONDON29th March 2012 Book your tickets atwww.exhibitionnews.co.uk/awardsHeadline sponsorsEvent partners

INTERVIEW18 www.exhibitionnews.co.ukow did you get into exhibitions?In 1967 at the tender age of 20 I got a job with IPC [now Reed] selling magazine advertising and space on the Mechanical Handling Exhibition. In fact I almost left the industry before ever going to a show. I was homesick for the glorious seaside place I come from in Wales called The Mumbles and was in working my notice when the show came around in May 1968. It was at Earls Court for two weeks and had 60,000 visitors. Every stand seemed to be full of booze and birds so naturally I begged for my job back.Fifteen years later I ended up owning that exhibition. What we've sold this year [as part of Quartz Publishing and Exhibitions] to Informa is effectively the third iteration of that show: Mechanical Handling became the International Handling and Storage exhibition, then the International Materials Handling exhibition (IMHX). where did you go from there?After four years with IPC I joined Turret as advertisement manager of Storage Handling and Distribution [SHD], the magazine we have just sold to Informa. There I did my first launch, the SHD Exhibition at Olympia in 1976. This was so successful that I decided to start my own business called Trinity in 1978. Mike Cooke, who later became CEO of DMG World Media, was our first employee. The 1980s were a golden era for our industry Exhibitions hKeith Harris has launched more than 90 shows during his career and has a stake in brands across the globe. he catches up with EN to discuss how he's still going strong after more than 40 years of a lifEtimE