Organiser Keith Merrett explains what’s in store for visitors to this year’s show.
There is only a short time between now and the 2016 Movers & Storers Show at Hangar 42, Bruntingthorpe (Tuesday 1 & Wednesday 2 November) although it seems just a short time ago we were waving goodbye to the exhibitors at the 2015 Silverstone show last September. Time flies!
2016 is proving a monster year for ‘reasons to visit’ the show which is now in its 9th year. We moved to our new venue with enough space on just one floor for both exhibitor stands and the display of vehicles. We love our new venue because it has everything possible you’d expect from a modern exhibition hall. Bruntingthorpe itself is what we like to describe as the coolest place you’ve never heard of.
It has been used by, among others, Top Gear in the memorable car football match between a VW Fox and a Toyota Aygo. The whole site is immense and covers 670 acres which includes a test track, one of Britain’s longest runways, a car auction house, garage and fields and fields of nearly new prestige vehicles awaiting delivery. It nestles in the Leicestershire countryside just a few miles away from the M1. To make sure you don’t struggle finding it though we will be having AA road signage from every direction, so just follow the signs.
We’ve been busily working behind the scenes to make sure the 2016 event is one to remember. We have a really great line up on all fronts from exhibitors to trucks and from competitions to seminars. New for this year is Britain’s Strongest Removalist competition kindly sponsored by Britannia Movers and made possible by the patience and dedication of Reeves of Petersfield. You may have read Charlotte’s story in last month’s Mover magazine about the trials and tribulations of putting this kind of event on?
We’re pleased to say we are now ready to take entries for this fabulous competition overseen by Faye Jordan, one of the strongest women in Britain. Entrants need to be fit and healthy, work for a UK mover or self storage business and be strong enough to carry out three disciplines. They are:
• Dead Lift
• The Lorry Load
• The Truck Pull
You can find out more from our website www.themoversandstorersshow.co.uk. Go to the Competitions page for details of each discipline, the rules of entry and of course the Entry Form.
Our ever popular Packer of the Year competition is back again, same rules, i.e. how quickly can you pack 200 cubic feet of furniture and cartons and can you get it all into the storage container? This is a real race against the clock where accuracy is as important as speed. Last year’s winners (second year in succession) were MGR Removals of West London. They worked well as a team and on the day managed a very respectable result. Again, details and entry forms are now on our website so just look for the competition page and decide if your team are up to the challenge.
We are also pleased to offer you the chance to drive an ex-London Transport ‘bendy-bus’ or maybe hurtle around the proving track in a Vauxhall VXR … a more competitive car than you might at first think. We’ll also be providing a couple of other ‘walk-by’ competitions for you that are free to enter without advance notice, lots of fun but still providing plenty of challenges.
The Learning Zone is also back. This year we are delighted to have it sponsored by The Mover magazine who will be taking an active part in the proceedings. There are always new things to discuss and new ideas to test. This year will be no different with an exciting programme being worked on as we speak. One session we can tell you about will be with Scott Evans, co-founder of Pink Self Storage. Scott has approached self-store from a different perspective that reflects his background as a serial entrepreneur and self-styled technology addict – all this at age 25!
Just around the corner from the Learning Zone, in the next aisle, you can pop in to the Web & Social Media Clinic sponsored and run by our friends at Buzzmove. They have transformed the concept to provide a ‘drop in’ series of 10-minute Masterclasses as well as one to one meetings to discuss specific issues. You may have been reading their thought provoking series of articles in the Movers & Storers Newsletter about apps that are available to improve your business strengths and maybe increase sales. In an age of constantly changing IT opportunities this clinic may provide you with some insight into E-marketing tools and how to apply them
The show wouldn’t be the Movers & Storers Show without the popular meeting space we like to call ‘The Café & Networking Zone’. This year Reason Global Insurance kindly agreed to sponsor this area and as always when the guys from Brighton are involved they will create something unique. Hopefully they’ll provide you with a soothing place to rest those aching feet and catch up with your friends, contemporaries and piers.
I suppose the big news for many of you will be the fact that the 2016 show will host the most removal lorries ever assembled under one roof! Please allow plenty of time to visit every one of them and of course, all the other exhibitors who have committed to exhibit their wares for you.
Finally, we are hoping to bring back the Truck of the Year Competition. As we go to print we are still in discussions with a possible sponsor for this mighty event.
This year we will be raising money for the Poppy Appeal, British Legion and are hoping to match or even beat last year’s figure of £3,291 raised on behalf of the Macmillan Nurses. Each stand will have a collection tin and if every one of you commits to 10p or 20p per stand visited we can easily beat that figure!
Just space for me to thank our stalwart sponsor of badges and lanyards – Albert Haywood & Sons who year in, year out ensures we are able to provide state of the art badging, and also to confirm the registration page is now open at www.themoversandstorersshow.co.uk with entry free to anyone working directly in either the moving or self-store industries. Doors open on the Tuesday and Wednesday (1st and 2nd November) at 09:30 and as a reminder, if you don’t register by Monday, 31 October we will charge you admission on the door, so please get on line and fill out the registration page.
Photos: Top right: Hangar ’42, the show’s new venue; middle left: the Truck Pull; middle right Faye Jordan; bottom right: The Learning Zone; bottom left: Emma Lanman of Van
Girls, winner of the 2015 AIM Domestic Mover of the Year 2015;
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