After its successful launch last year that saw over 100 exhibiting companies and over 2,300 visitors, SME Live returns to the NEC on October 16 & 17, with an expected 200 exhibitors, 5,000 plus visitors and 150 speakers.
This year, there will be three new sectors to best reflect the needs of the SME community: SME Marketing, SME Business and SME IT & Tech. James Ashwood, MD of SME Live, said: “At SME live we want to enable business growth for the whole Midlands region and beyond. We were delighted with the launch of SME Live last year and the response the show received form the market. It’s important however that we continue to develop our offering to remain relevant to our customers. These three new zones will best meet the SME Live community’s needs, by offering access to crucial business services that will sustain business growth, marketing agencies that will help them win new customers and IT & Tech providers that will optimise their businesses.”
In addition to the three new zones, the successful key note and ‘hands on’ theatres will return and have already secured key speakers from PWC, KPMG, Aston University, Birmingham City University, Rackspace, ThinCats and Yell Business.
SME Live will include a number of other initiatives including:
121 meeting platform – Allowing participants at SME Live 2018 to review registered visitors and exhibitors and pre-arrange meetings prior to the event to ensure they are establishing critical relationships to move their business forward.
The Breakfast Briefing Series – A series of breakfast briefing facilitated by leading bodies to kick start the days of the show.
Meet the Supply Chain – An opportunity for business that form part of industry supply chains to meet with the procurement teams of the big Midlands companies, helping those SMEs get their first big deal.
The SME Innovation Awards – A new awards scheme launched this year to celebrate innovation within Business, Marketing and IT & Tech services. These awards will encourage joint entries from the service providers and their SME customers, highlighting best practice across the SME community.
