The recently rebranded hospitality design event Sleep+Eat, which took place in its new location of London’s Olympia, allayed fears it wouldn’t be a success following its relocation.
Sleep+Eat, formerly Sleep, was held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London and attracted designers, consultants, and architects.
Some exhibitors were apprehensive whether East London architectural practices would follow the show to its West London location.
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This was despite only 8% of the show’s visitors, in 2017, having been identified as an architect, with the majority (25%) designers.
However, exhibitors reported they were pleased with the calibre of visitors to the show and said they were attracting new audiences to their brands from the UK and overseas.
National sales manager for VitrA UK Darren Paxford said: “With regards to the architect practices coming to visit us, maybe we haven’t had as many as we had previously. But I think we have engaged with a lot more interior designers, this time around, as well as hoteliers.”
And marketing communications manager for Sanipex UK Melissa Gray added the proximity of Olympia to Heathrow Airport had attracted global visitors: “We have found being close to Heathrow Airport has attracted visitors from around the globe. It’s been great for our export channel.”
In fact, managing director of Roman David Osborne was emphatic the show “did not disappoint.”
He commented: “The quality of visitors to our stand was outstanding, which has opened many new doors for Roman and has created exciting opportunities which we look forward to following up.”