Kimble faces flack as Clarion acquires defence shows

Within minutes of Clarion Events confirming it had acquired DSEi, ITEC and LAAD defence exhibitions from Reed Exhibitions today, managing director Simon Kimble got his first taste of the level of animosity towards the shows. A blogger calling himself Johnny Void posted a scathing attack on the largest independent exhibition organiser in the UK and urged people to write to 'laughing boy' Kimble to let him know how they feel about his latest acquisition.

Last summer, Reed chief executive, Crispin Davis, announced that Reed would sever ties with the arms industry by the end of 2007. The decision was in response to pressure from anti-arms-trade campaigners and writers at Reed Elsevier's scientific journals. "The sale of these three exhibitions to Clarion Events completes Reed Exhibitions' withdrawal from the defence-exhibitions sector announced in 2007," Reed said today in a statement.

It was always going to take a brave man to take on the ownership of DSEi, Europe's largest arms fair. In 2005, The Independent newspaper discovered that an exhibitor was offering cluster bombs for sale. Clarion Defence has acted swiftly to announce on the DSEi website its decision to ban from display, publication, offer or marketing in any form, all munitions and references to them, that can loosely be described as Cluster Munitions.

This move, however welcome, will do little to silence the Disarm DSEi movement. But it does indicate that Kimble is readying himself for the long diplomacy battle that lies ahead. I know Simon Kimble. He's an ambitious business savvy entrepreneur who is moving into waters deeper than he's ever swum before. Asked by the Guardian about ethical concerns over the acquisition, Kimble said today: "The events we have acquired are thriving with full government support, serving only the legitimate global defence-and-security industry. Exhibitors and visitors must adhere to the highest regulatory scrutiny, not just complying with but exceeding UK and international law. Defence and security is a legitimate business like any other and we will apply the same very high standards, rigour, experience and skill to organising events in this sector as we do in all of our others."

The next DSEi runs in September 2009 at Excel. Between now and then, Kimble will be forced to face some of the toughest personal and professional challenges of his career. That in itself will determine his diplomacy and bravery. I hope, along the way his passion for every event he manages will help tighten and regulate further an industry that could otherwise so easily spill blood on his hands.

Behind the headlines: Excel & Mask

Whilst I’ve been sitting in the editor’s chair at Revolution, my former editorial team on Event magazine has been chasing major breaking news. First, Excel London, the exhibition centre in Docklands was sold for £321million to a UK subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company.

This summer, the venue can finally begin phase two of its long-awaited development plans. The £150million second phase will take Excel London to around 100,000sqm of flexible flat floor exhibition and conference space. It will represent a major investment in providing event facilities of world scale in London, as well as supporting the capital’s ambition to host an increasing number of high profile domestic and international shows.

The sale has resulted in the departure of chief executive Jamie Buchan – replaced by former deputy CEO Kevin Murphy. Jamie joined Excel in February 2002, a year after I started on Event magazine. He wrote to tell me he was stepping down and to thank me for my ‘friendship and support’. Shortly after his appointment I criticised Excel for its cold appearance. On my next visit, Jamie had lined the venue atrium with palm trees. He was always ready to listen, had a real passion for the future success of the venue and would go out of his way to acknowledge everyone in a room. As the race now gets under way to complete Excel's development before Olympic year, I sincerely hope Jamie is able to retain his non-executive status on the Visit London board and I wish him well in his next venture.

Mask , a 20-year old party agency run by Arthur Somerset has sadly been less fortunate in securing its financial future as an independent agency. The Concerto Group was called to its rescue this month and has now added Mask to a portfolio that includes rival agencies the Ultimate Experience and Event Wise, as well as caterer Create, team building provider Business Pursuits and structure supplier Witney UK.

Mask’s principal contract to provide parties at the Truman Galleries in November and December remains unaffected and I understand Arthur has joined the Concerto Group as a consultant for the next two years. Arthur is one of the industry’s more colourful characters. During my seven years as editor of Event and RSVP magazines, his support and ‘Ask Arthur’ agony uncle advice was always appreciated whilst his maverick bad-boy behaviour and strong opinions set him apart from his rivals. I wish him well.

Look back at 2007 The 30th anniversary of Star Wars

On the same day David Beckham began his quest to popularise the UK’s national sport at a Galaxy far, far away, a US export was making its debut at Excel London. A generation of Star Wars fans descended on docklands for a convention to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original trilogy.
Cards Inc, the largest licensee of Star Wars merchandise in Europe, had in mind Star Wars Celebration – a convention staged in the US every four years – when it bought the rights to host Celebration Europe and approached IMIE, organiser of the British International Motor Show, to manage it.

Huge following
“At first I was sceptical,” admits IMIE director Tim Etchells. “I just couldn’t get my head around staging a US-style convention for a UK audience. But when I delved into the range of characters, the heritage and the huge following Star Wars has built up, it became obvious we had something to offer.”
That ‘something’ resulted in the advance sale of 23,000 tickets. On 13 July the first visitors began arriving at 4am. By 6am there were more than 100 queuing to ensure they’d be among the first to buy limited-edition Darth Vader helmets made especially for the 30th anniversary celebrations. Targeted marketing at fan clubs and online forums resulted in an international audience – dressed in character, each armed with their own lightsaber – while a small £150,000 marketing budget reached families looking for a day out and saw visitor numbers swell to around 30,000 with no complimentary ticket handouts.
Jonathan Sands, director of Weird & Wonderful, which built the sets and provided costume actors for the three-day convention, believes it was always going to attract more than just the hardcore fans. He says: “Thirty years ago a film was made that blew the imagination. The majority of the thirty-somethings that witnessed the phenomena now have children of their own, so it’s only natural they would want their kids to experience what they went through in 1977.”
On the show floor, Sands created a Jedi training school on the swamp planet Dagobah that was packed with children. Other Weird & Wonderful-designed feature areas included Tantive IV, where visitors could be photographed with the Stormtroopers who raided Princess Leia’s spacecraft during the opening scenes of Episode IV: A New Hope. Weird & Wonderful also provided the official props, including an X-Wing fighter and models of Jabba the Hutt and the Death Star.

Interactive content
“We’ve been an official licensee of Lucasfilm since the late 1990s so this was one of those events where it was important to have Star Wars running through the veins,” adds Sands. “Rich interactive content was vital to bring the show to life. I manage the sister exhibition in County Hall which is now permanent so I knew the convention would draw the crowds.”
Licensees such as Lego and Toys R Us sold merchandise at the event, while actors and production staff talked about filming the trilogy during lectures and personal appearances in the main hall. In Excel’s Platinum Suite, an exhibition of painted Darth Vader helmets ran alongside more technical lectures that included a glimpse into the keenly awaited Star Wars animated TV series.
IMIE’s Etchells says: “We worked so closely with Lucasfilm since naturally it is protective of its brand. Each and every stand, piece of merchandise and set has had to be approved by them, but they’ve done it many times in the US, the process was straightforward.
“In the evening we staged an outdoor screening of Episode IV. We did look at other ideas such as a fancy dress ball but it became too complicated. Most of the European fan clubs are here on three-day tickets so the hotels are full in July and the clubs are organising their own evening entertainment.”
One of the main draws of the show was the autograph area, where fans could buy tokens and swap them for the autographs of voiceover actors or minor players in the films. The star attraction was Luke Skywalker himself, actor Mark Hamill who signed 400 autographs a day for £85 each. Judging by the queue to secure his signature, the force is still strong with the Star Wars brand.

Look back at 2007Le Tour de France comes to London

When people question London’s ability to stage a successful Olympics in 2012, one date will now form the case for the defence and send the doubters on their bikes. On 7 July 2007, two years to the day since the terrorist atrocities on the capital’s transport system, around three million people from all over the world swarmed into the city for a weekend of events that included the Live Earth concert, the Wimbledon tennis finals and the Tower of London Music Festival. At its epicentre was the world’s biggest annual sporting event and without a doubt the biggest sporting test for the capital in advance of 2012.

Staging the Tour de France’s Grand Départ cost in the region of £6.8m, with the Mayor predicting a return on that investment of around £115m in additional tourism. It comprised a 7.9km prologue time trial that took place around Westminster, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace on the Saturday and determined the first wearer of the race leader’s yellow jersey. The following day, the 189 cyclists departed for the first stage proper – a 126-mile route through Greenwich and into Kent.

Opening ceremony
Before each stage the tour ‘caravan’ (200 sponsors’ vehicles dispensing free gifts) drove the length of each route. Hyde Park was transformed into a ‘people’s village’ – a free event with interactive cycling displays – and every day a bicycle ballet took place outside the National Theatre. At Excel London in docklands, around 2,500 press and media registered at a hi-tech 8,000sqm media centre and in Trafalgar Square, an opening ceremony kicked off the extravaganza on 6 July.
Transport for London (TfL), the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency had been planning this weekend for four years. In August 2006, following a tender involving around 100 companies, TfL engaged agency Innovision to help turn its plans into reality. The team was lead by managing director Will Glendinning, who helped to plan the event meticulously with TfL, ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, the Tour’s owners), the Metropolitan Police, Westminster Council, the Royal Parks, the Greater London Authority, Kent County Council, Canterbury City Council and more than 250 other stakeholders for more than a year.
Glendinning says: “From the outset, I was confident we had the talent and experience in our team to deliver a truly memorable event. However, I really wanted the event to recapture the public’s excitement and imagination of what a unique location London is and the potential available in the city. To stage an event of this scale, all our contractors needed to realise how much discussion and paperwork would be involved and logistically we pulled off one of the biggest road closure schemes London has seen for a long while.”
Substantial road closures and diversions to bus routes enabled 6,000 staff, crew and personnel to build the route infrastructure, which included 19 big screen viewing areas. At Excel London the world’s media were gathering and the cycling teams were milling around the surrounding hotels.
Excel’s services director Steve Melrose helped to oversee a five-day build of the media centre that comprised around 500 work stations, 100 analogue phone lines, two 8Mb broadband connections, 20 ISDN lines and three press conference rooms that around 500 media people a day passed through during the weekend. He says: “As a venue we’re used to dealing with international show requirements so it wasn’t a problem. At first, however, we were dealing with BT as our telecommunication provider, but very late in the day it changed and we had to deal direct with France Telecom. That was really the only slight issue we had to react to and quickly.”

Security plan
TfL had even bigger concerns. As a key player in bringing the Tour to the capital, it had cancelled engineering work on the Tube in central London and provided an extra 11,000 parking spaces for bikes. But it was the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on London and a week earlier a car bombing had been foiled near Piccadilly Circus. On the Central Line, a derailed underground train sat blocking Mile End’s westbound platform.
According to TfL’s head of special projects, Mick Hickford, the infrastructure was ready to cope with anything. “Regarding the Central Line derailment, we laid on additional bus services but in fact the line was reopened by Saturday morning,” he says. “An additional security plan for London’s transport was put in place but the area that held the prologue is the most secure in the country anyhow as the cyclists were passing the House of Commons, Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. London’s public transport moves on average more than one million people a day so we were confident it would withstand all the activity in London, but it was extremely good practice for 2012 and we have learnt a huge amount.”

Well-wishers
Throughout the planning of the Grand Départ, Innovision was contracted by TfL to coordinate and deliver the creative and technical aspects of the event while TfL oversaw the planning, marketing and PR aspects. Hickford admits that part of the marketing campaign was an attempt to prolong European visits while also promoting the benefits of cycling. “I think two million people in central London over the weekend, plus huge public interest, has shown there is a great audience for cycling in London,” he says. “And I’m sure that such a great weekend for both sport and music ensured that visitors either stayed longer or left with a fantastic impression of London’s ability to host major events.”
On Sunday 8 July, 21 teams of nine riders left the Mall at 10.25am, crossed bridges and paraded past the London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral before heading for Greenwich via Tower Bridge. The race officially started opposite the Maritime Museum at 11am as the cyclists set off for Canterbury. From there, well-wishers and doping scandals followed them through Belgium and Spain.
After 21 stages and 2,206 miles, the world’s most gruelling sporting challenge reached its climax in Paris on 29 July – but whatever impressions it left overall, there’s no doubt that London’s handling of the opening days was a triumph that will stay in people’s memories for at least the next five years.