The four day event was even more popular than last year's
Organisers of this year’s Saudi Build construction exhibition in Riyadh say the four day event attracted 18,000 visitors, far exceeding expectations.
The show closed yesterday after being held at the new Riyadh International Exhibition Centre for the first time.
Vice president of marketing for organisers Riyadh Exhibitions Company Sadi Kaddoura said the event was a marked improvement on last year’s Saudi Build which attracted 12,000 people.
“The feedback from many of the international groups has been exceptional,” he said.
“They all say that they’ve been doing a tremendous amount of business, the quality of the visitors has been fantastic and they are very pleased with that result.”
“Some international delegations already want to lock-in their area for next year, we’ve never had so much demand on space a year ahead of the show like we are witnessing this year.”
Kaddoura said several other countries not present at this year’s event have already confirmed their attendance for 2010 including Egypt, Belgium and the Netherlands.
He said they have already decided to increase the floor space for next year’s event by a minimum of 5,000m2, which will amount to a total of 28,500m2.
Kaddoura said the new venue for the event played a large role in attracting more visitors.
“The old centre only had 300 parking spaces and this new venue has 1,800,” he said.
“So many decision makers used to avoid going to the old centre simply because of the inadequate parking.”
Ten exhibitors surveyed by Construction Week at Saudi Build were generally very positive about the event. The majority were impressed with the number of strong business leads obtained and the quality of the visitors in terms of their decision making ability.
All surveyed said they would return to Saudi Build next year. A number of exhibitors voiced some concerns over poor organisation of the event and delays to setting up.
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