Big Interview
Unleashing the NEC’s potential
Group CEO of the UK’s Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, Paul Thandi,
speaks to EW as he leads the Blackstone-backed group in delivering a new
end-to-end event ‘resort’ experience. The venue will also show off its
Vox Centre as host of UFI’s European Conference, 15-17 May
ow has the acquisition of the NEC
Group by Blackstone last October
impacted your strategy?
Blackstone have invested into our
people strategy and, importantly, our vision to
become Europe’s most successful live events
business. We have ambitious plans which can
now be realised across our existing businesses,
real estate opportunities and possible extensions
to our current model.
How is the exhibition business performing
and what are your targets?
We have seen double digit growth across our
business consistently for the last few years and
have similar levels dialled into our plans going
forward. 2019 has got good growth in our arenas,
catering, ticketing conference and exhibition
businesses. Exhibitions are at the heart of our
growth.
As a predominately UK-based organisation
we continue to be confident in the general
landscape, albeit we know that the backdrop of
Brexit can present short term headwinds to some
sectors our customers operate within.
The NEC is hosting the UFI European
Conference in May, a great opportunity to
showcase your facilities to global peers.
We’re thrilled to be the first ever UK hosts of the
UFI European Conference and we’ll be greeting
our international delegates at the Vox, our newest
and most technically capable conferencing space.
We have seen significant growth at the Vox, since
it opened in October 2015.
How can exhibitions be even better drivers of
economic growth and how are you working
with organisers to achieve results?
We have invested heavily into the visitor and
exhibitor offer, particularly in technology and
customer service. This is not only our own
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investment, but we are bringing on third party
investment and will be at the forefront of once
in a generation infrastructure investment that is
now beginning to be made to the communication
links in and around the NEC campus and
the city centre sites, with the preparation for
Commonwealth Games in 2022 and High Speed
2 in 2026.
Our organisers benefit from our knowledge
and experience of the ever-changing range of
events we’ve hosted over the past 43 years.
Data insights on past behaviours, customer
segmentation and market categorisation
demographic profiling allow us to help our
organisers develop their content.
Our ticketing agent, The Ticket Factory,
recently launched a new dedicated B2B
registration product called Expoware, designed
to help customers capture essential insight and
data on their audience and behaviours. We have
a flexibility within our business to offer models
that encompass tenancy, data and ticketing and
hospitality to meet best the customers’ needs.
You have experience of different types of
venue ownership, wherein lie the strengths
and weaknesses of the main public versus
private models?
We were owned by Birmingham City Council
until 2015 and developed the NEC site
considerably whilst under their ownership,
growing from just five exhibition halls when we
first opened in 1976.
We now have 182,000sqm of covered
exhibition space, in 18 interconnecting halls, in
addition to 34 conference suites, an arena and
a new conference centre together with fully
invested existing halls. In the later years under
Birmingham City Council’s ownership, however,
we had to turn down several opportunities
because they fell outside the Council’s
governance funding and investment remit.
Paul Thandi has 20 years’
experience in the media
and events industry.
He was previously an
Executive Director at CMP
Information, an operating
company of UBM.
He has been responsible
for transformational change
at the NEC Group, developing
the Group’s venues into
leisure destinations, with
visitor numbers to the NEC
campus doubling in the last
three years. This strategy has
included introducing and
partnering with the £150m
entertainment complex,
Resorts World Birmingham.
He also signed up Merlin
Entertainments to open their
LEGOLAND Discovery Centre
at Arena Birmingham and
launched the first Bear Grylls
Adventure at the NEC.
The NEC Group operates
the National Exhibition Centre
(NEC), Resorts World Arena
and the Vox Conference
Centre in Solihull. The
Group also operates the
International Convention
Centre (ICC) and Arena
Birmingham in Birmingham
city centre. It also manages
support services, including
a national ticketing agency,
The Ticket Factory; hospitality
brand, Amplify; and caterer,
Amadeus.
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk