Next year’s Galway Expo is being relocated to Limerick where it will be staged in a new fit-for-purpose exhibition hall. This follows a string of fifteen successful years of the Skipper Expo Int. in Galway where both exhibitors and visitors continuously provided valuable feedback.
Dates for next year’s event are 13-14th March and according to Mara Media, the shift to Limerick is based on visitor feedback.
‘The show in Galway has seen incredible growth with the number of exhibitors more than doubling over the last 15 years,’ said Mara Media’s Sharon Boyle.
‘We simply can’t expand the show in the existing venue, and recent years presented us with many challenges due to space restrictions. Among the comments from both visitors and exhibitors was although the Galway Bay Hotel is a great venue, as the show grew, it was becoming increasingly cramped and not easily accessible.’
Next year, UL Sport Arena, based in the grounds of University of Limerick, will hold all the exhibitors in one spacious hall, enabling more and even bigger stands, providing a much better overall visitor experience. A large outside display area located adjacent to the visitor entrance will offer an opportunity to showcase much larger products and boats. UL is also home to the National 50m Swimming Pool where safety demos will be hosted.
The venue offers many other benefits, including onsite catering and bar facilities, its ease of accessibility and excellent car parking facilities. There is an excellent road network to UL, which is located just off the M7, and Shannon Airport is only 35 kilometres from the show venue, from where there is an excellent range of scheduled flights.
‘In the interest of being fair to all our customers and offering everyone the same platform to exhibit, UL will provide an arena that is more appropriate to the size of the show, giving it the space it requires, where all exhibitors are visible in one room allowing freer movement of visitors in the aisles,’ Sharon Boyle said.
‘Galway has been a great location for the expo over the years and we would like to thank the Galway Bay Hotel for all their work in supporting the event. We really look forward to welcoming exhibitors and visitors to Limerick next year, where the show promises to be even bigger and better than before, and which will have scope for future growth.’
