Plenty to learn at Olympia Franchise Exhibition

“The seminars were encouraging, helpful and informative. I’ve identified several prospects to follow up on. It’s definitely been worth the journey and I would visit again.”

The thoughts of Michael Didcott from Ipswich echo the feedback from many of the visitors to the recent British & International Franchise Exhibition.

The UK’s leading, annual international franchise exhibition attracted a vast audience through the doors of Olympia, London in March. Visitors were able to meet face to face and have discussions with a wide range of bfa-accredited franchise businesses during the two day event. The National Hall at Olympia was filled with exhibitors spanning a range of sectors including food and drink, travel, finance and property.

As Sajad Khan, the owner of a retail business in South East London, explained:
“It was definitely valuable to meet face to face with McDonalds and other businesses in the market. It’s better and easier to talk and get information this way than over the phone or the internet.”

The free, educational features at the event proved particularly popular. Among them the Franchisee Panel enabled visitors to hear from existing franchise owners and their experiences of making the transition from employee into running a successful franchise business.

One visitor, Sandra Toussaint, who works in the HR sector in London, commented: “Today has been very insightful; I came here with an open mind to find some potential investments. The Franchisee Panel was very interesting and reiterated what I had thought about having the need for passion for a business to be a success.”

The comprehensive conference provided a series of over 40 inspiring seminars covering topics such as high-level investment franchising, franchise resales, executives in franchising, families in franchising, growing your own business, hands-on franchising and international franchising. Many of these drew such large crowds that the theatres overflowed into the aisles. The seminars provided a real insight into the industry as one visitor, Mandeep Rauli, a pharmacy manager from Barnet, commented: “The seminars were useful, providing ideas and new ways of thinking about business that I would not have otherwise considered. It is an exhibition worth visiting.”

The next major bfa-supported franchise event is The British Franchise Exhibition is held on 8 and 9 June 2012 at Manchester Central.

To register for The British Franchise Exhibition, call +44 (0)844 257 8668 or visit www.franchiseinfo.co.uk. Callers can purchase tickets by credit card for £8 each or £7 each for two or more. Admission on the door is £10. Visitors can, however gain FREE admission by using the promotional code BIFREV when they register on the website.

The British Franchise Exhibition is open from 10am each day, closing at 5pm on Friday 8 June and 4pm on Saturday 9 June 2012.

For the latest news and updates about the British Franchise Exhibition, follow the exhibition on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ukfranchising, join The Franchise Exhibitions Group on LinkedIn or become a fan of the FranchiseInfo group on Facebook.