Business Continuity Market Comes of Age as 2008 Event better than ever

London, UK, April 11, 2008 - Last week’s Business Continuity Expo– the definitive event for risk, resilience and recovery finished on a high note with 6% increase in numbers of visitors attending. The conference & exhibition attracted 2457 visitors (pre- ABC audit) from top level positions across a wide range of industries including local government, the forces, pharmaceutical, finance, telecoms and aerospace. The majority of these being directly responsible for their companies risk management and business continuity plans.

As a result of the high calibre and purchasing power of visitors, the exhibitors were delighted with the event, with many of them already re-booking for the 2009 event.

The on-floor seminars were especially popular this year, with standing room only in almost every session. The seminars gave visitors the opportunity to pick up the advice of other business continuity professionals and learn about the most cutting edge solutions and technologies available. One senior executive from a major retailer said “I scheduled my visit so that I could meet with the companies that I knew had the solutions I was looking for, but I also made the time to attend 4 of the sessions which turned out to be well worth the time and effort as they were incredibly informative and beneficial.”

The Conference, which runs alongside the exhibition also attracted a wide range of high level delegates and speakers drawn not only from the UK but also across Europe. The panel discussions were particularly well attended, and included speakers such as Bruce Mann CB, Director of Civil Contingencies Secretariat with Gerald Corbett, Chairman, SSL International and Brett Lovegrove, Head of Counter Terrorism, City of London Police, Stephan Shakespeare, CIO and Co-founder, YouGov and Gary Locker, Permanent Liaison, ACPO and The Cabinet Office. Of special interest were the end-user sessions which included speakers such as: Colin Clark, Head of Corporate Business Control, Somerfield Supermarkets and Jeremy Quick, Deputy Governor, Guernsey Financial Regulator.

Anna Campagnoli – Event Director for Business Continuity Expo said, “A few years ago the Business Continuity Manager was an almost unknown entity, the title just didn’t exist. However, at this year’s event we saw almost 1500 visitors with this title, from some of the largest companies in the UK, which shows it is very much a thriving profession. Judging by the attendance levels in the 50+ seminars, there is clearly a real thirst for knowledge and we were glad that the combination of seminars and cutting edge products and solutions created an ideal event for them.”

The exhibitor’s response shows that it was one of the best shows ever:

Richard Leyland – Marketing Manager – Stratus Technologies
"It’s been brilliant as far as attendance numbers. We've been surprised by the seniority of the visitors and delegates. We've already signed up for next year."

Continuity Shop – Geoff Howard – CEO
“BC Expo brings us more revenue than any other single marketing exercise that we do. At a conservative estimation 40% of our sales comes from business generated at the show.”

Piper Shields – SunGuard
“There have been twenty five SunGuard people working on a shift basis and they've all been busy all the time. Quality and calibre of visitor has been higher than ever before – no time wasters, everyone is looking to have a sensible business discussion.”

Stephen Teare – Head of Telemarketing – MTI
“It's been absolutely cracking – in the first day we had 154 fantastic leads in the 1st day. As an event that we've never considered before we have been absolutely amazed at the people who have come to our stand that they all have had a need for BC, whether it be back-up & recovery, disaster recovery or compliance issues, they all realised they have to do something now. We’ve even met with CEO's from financial services companies and mostly high level BC managers. 12 months ago they just didn't exist in these numbers.”

Lorraine Darke – BCI
“BC Expo has been a great success for the BCI this year. We have been very pleased to receive positive reaction to recent developments and changes such as BCI certification and the introduction of the first in the series of our training DVDs. We look forward to BC Expo 2009.”

David Teed -Teed Businesss Continuity
“This is our third year and it’s been our best year ever.”

Terry Hewett -Easy2Solve/RU Secure:
“An amazing amount of interest, absolutely phenomenal, completely knocked out on Wednesday with such a great turn out we nearly ran out of brochures! We will be returning next year to continue receiving top grade results!”

Next year’s event will take place in March 2009 at London’s Excel.
For further information please visit www.businesscontinuityexpo.co.uk.