News
UK is a show-free zone
Tim Green Nov 30 2007, 10:41am
Comments (1)
There will be no mobile content trade show in the UK in 2008.
With MEM moving to France and Terrapinn declining to resurrect MoCollywood or Mobile Content World, there will be no trade show for the UK mobile content industry next year.
It’s a sorry state of affairs for what is arguably the engine room of the European market.
Although other countries, such as Italy and Spain, have developed genuine consumer passion for mobile entertainment, the UK is home to the most creative and technical expertise.
But this sector will have nowhere to go next year. In October, exhibition organiser Terrapinn hosted a disastrous new event, MoCollywood, which attracted barely 150 people. It replaced the long-running Mobile Content World show, which had traditionally pulled in around 800 people.
Angry MoCollywood exhibitors blamed the failure of the show on a change of venue and format, but most importantly, on the decision to charge all visitors between £595 and £795.
With MCW, the conferences were paid-for, but the exhibition was free to attend.
Many exhibitors demanded a refund from the organiser, but were instead offered money off a stand at another Terrapinn show.
But Terrapinn appears to be abandoning the mobile content space in the UK, so the offer is of little value. Karen Hewett, marketing director of Terrapinn, said: “At the moment we have no plans to run MCW or MoCollywood next year.”
Meanwhile, the MEF and Informa are moving the MEM show to Cannes in May, after a lacklustre event in Monte Carlo last June.
The partners have already begun talking to industry insiders about how to improve the event in 2008.
Comments
“See this before”
Posted by: Bob - Nov 30, 4:09pm
The industry really needs to get its act together. The UK games industry had a similar problem a few years back - and it hasn't had a show for 3 years now. A sad state of affairs.