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Revamped Pharmacy Show Sees Record Attendance
(October 19, 2009): Closerstill Media Healthcare, organisers of the Pharmacy Show (Oct 11th-12th, NEC Birmingham) have announced a record attendance of 4,479 at the UK’s leading two-day CPD training, education and sourcing event.
The show’s dedicated pharmacy professional attendance rose 78.71% to 3,208, based on the registration data compiled by Show Data Systems.
One of the event’s keynote speakers, Professor Joy Wingfield who spoke on the controversial Responsible Pharmacist issue, who was one of many speakers who addressed a packed, standing room-only keynote theatre, commented: “ I am stunned at the size of the Pharmacy Show. It`s a very important forum for community pharmacists, arguably more important than BPC”.
As part of a major revamp of the show, the Pharmacy Show hosted five conference streams including the C+D Keynote Conference, the Pharmacy Services Forum, the Pharmacy Business Accelerator and the Skills & Development Forum – making it the largest training and education event for UK pharmacy professionals.
Show director, Michael Westcott commented: “We invested heavily in delivering relevant and timely education that could really make a difference to every function of pharmacy businesses, and given the excellent response from the pharmacy community as well as suppliers, we have succeeded. This gives us an excellent springboard from which to scale the show next year and adding even more value to both attendees and exhibitors.”
Sue Sharpe, Chief Executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and a keynote speaker at the show, said that the pharmacy sector was in need of a large scale forum to tackle key issues confronting the sector. “I was amazed by just how many people attended. There is clearly an appetite for this kind of event where pharmacy contractors can combine valuable education and training with trading on the exhibition floor.”
Mike Smith, Chairman of Alliance Healthcare, said the Pharmacy Show was one of the most important events for the pharmacy community and added, “It`s a very important event from which to address the challenges of the future. Community pharmacies that embrace change will have a bright future, those that don’t will be dead in the water.”
While thousands of pharmacy professionals from both the independent and multiple sector thronged the education, more than 200 UK and international suppliers reported brisk trading on the exhibition floor.
One of the industry’s leading players Numark and who exhibited at the show, commented: “The first day was the busiest we’ve ever seen the show. It’s been well worth being here. We’ve met lots of prospective clients,” said Steve Voyse, Commercial Manager.
Gabriella Dann, Key Account Business Development Manager of automated packaging specialists MTS Technology commented that leads from both independents and multiples increased significantly this year. “We’ve had huge amounts of interest and leads generated. We even made sales on the stand – which we weren’t expecting. We’ve booked larger stand for next year. This is the only UK show to promote to Independent and Multiple pharmacists in the UK under one roof.”
Footware specialists Benefoot UK has shifted its focus from the hospital sector to community healthcare and launched its retail ranges at the Pharmacy Show. “We have had a terrific response from wholesalers, independents and multiples that we’ve met at the show. We have meetings with senior buyers and prospective business set up so we are very happy – we’ve booked for next year!”, said Benefoot’s head of business development, Irene Inglis.
Exhibitors re-booked more than 100% of the exhibit space for the 2010 show which returns to the NEC in Birmingham from October 10-11th next year, including many international exhibitors as typified by German exhibitor Hasbargen. “This year was our first show in the UK and we’ve generated so many leads. The Pharmacy Show is the only place to meet this number of people in UK Pharmacy,” commented Managing Director, Volker Hasbargen.
