Casual Dining, which already has two best trade show awards to its name, is up for ‘Best UK Tradeshow – over 2,000 sqm’ at the exhibition industry’s AEO Excellence Awards this week.
The multi-award winning UK event for casual dining operators (including multiple and independent pubs, bars, restaurants, and hotels) has now been nominated for a best trade show award every year since its launch in 2014. That first year it won the AEO Awards’ under 2,000 sqm category. A title it successfully defended again in 2015.
Now, thanks to the show’s significant year-on-year growth in attendance, exhibitor numbers and floor space, Casual Dining is looking to win its biggest award yet at the ‘Oscars’ of the UK’s exhibition world.
Grace Allwright, group marketing manager of Casual Dining, says: “We’re thrilled that Casual Dining is up for Best Tradeshow for the fourth year running. It’s previously won the ‘under 2,000sqm’ category, so to be nominated in the ‘over 2,000 sqm’ is a huge achievement and highlights that it just gets bigger and better every year. As always our thanks go to the exhibitors, visitors and supporters that make Casual Dining such a special and important event for the sector it serves.”
“After our best ever show – with record numbers of buyers and, more importantly, a record quality of buyers, I didn’t think it could get any better for Casual Dining! We’re delighted!” agrees group event director Chris Brazier.
“Being nominated for this prestigious award – four years running – is testament to the amazing support the show has received in such a short amount of time. We’re excited to be able to share this nomination with our innovative exhibitors, association and media partners, and all the incredible visitors that have got firmly behind the only show dedicated to serving their vibrant sector,” he says.
The 2017 event, which took place just four months ago, served up 4,785 unique attendees (a 9% increase) to its 200 exhibiting companies (over 75% of which rebooked). Notably, nearly one in three visitors cited a corporate spend of over £500k. Among them were senior representatives from Azzurri Group, Casual Dining Group, The Restaurant Group, Jamie’s Italian, JD Wetherspoon, Enterprise Inns, Punch Taverns, Greene King, Whitbread, Marston’s, Revolution Bars Group, Mitchells & Butlers, PizzaExpress, Pizza Hut, Carluccio’s, Prezzo, GBK, Côte, Nando’s, TGI Friday’s, Bourne Leisure, Hollywood Bowl, Compass, Sodexo, WSH, Bidvest Foodservice, Hilton, Thwaites hotels & spas, and wagamama.
Casual Dining 2018 is already on track for a repeat performance. According to organiser Diversified UK, its exhibition space is selling at record speed.
Kraft Heinz Foodservice, Budweiser Budvar, Britvic, Coca-Cola European Partners, Radnor Hills Mineral Water, McCain Foodservice, Nestle Professional, Gamble Foodservice Solutions, Rational UK, Nigel Fredericks, Reynolds, Lamb Weston, Fever-Tree, Nisbets, Brita Vivreau, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Moy Park Foodservice, New York Bakery, Jascots, Major International, Eden Furniture, Comtrex, and UCC Coffee UK & Ireland, Billington Group, Kettle Foods, Arla Foods, Tevalis, and Marcantonio Foods, are just a few of the big names confirmed so far.
As in previous years, Diversified UK received multiple AEO Excellence Awards nominations. Commercial Kitchen, which ran at the NEC Birmingham last week, is up for two trophies – ‘Best Tradeshow Launch’ and ‘Best Tradeshow under 2,000sqm’. While Nordic Organic Food Fair and Natural Products Scandinavia, based in Malmö, Sweden, is celebrating its ‘Best Overseas Tradeshow over 2,000sqm’ nomination.
The AEO Excellence Awards 2017 take place this week, on 16 June, at Grosvenor House, in London.
Save the date for Casual Dining 2018
“We don’t have to fly across the Atlantic to find the latest industry innovations under one roof any more – Casual Dining has brought all that and more to the UK,” says Karen Forrester, CEO of TGI Friday’s UK.
“Casual Dining is always a fantastic opportunity to discover something new,” says Garry Duncan, operations director at Nando’s. “It’s become the meeting place for our industry.”
“Casual Dining is the best food and drinks exhibition in the industry. It seems to be getting bigger and better every year,” says Glenn Evans, head of food development at Las Iguanas.
“Brilliant show again…the most innovation I have seen at any show this year,” says Tim Foster, co-founder of the Yummy Collection.
Casual Dining will return to the Business Design Centre, Islington, London, on 21-22 February 2018. For more information, and to stay up-to-date with all the latest news and exhibitor information click here