UFI Working Group
Room to move: How bnetwork ' s hotel strategy won the 2026 UFI Industry Partners Award
ost event relocations
M treat hotels as an afterthought. bnetwork flipped that order – and has won UFI ' s 2026 Industry Partners Award for doing so.
UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, named the accommodation specialist as this year’ s winner on 8 September. The award recognised bnetwork’ s work with Clarion Gaming on moving ICE and iGB Affiliate from London to Barcelona.
This year’ s Award theme was‘ The Biggest Lesson Learnt: From Zero to Hero’, and focused on practical learning, resilience and innovation. Entrants had to show how industry partners and their collaborators turned adversity into opportunity.
Hotels first, city second According to bnetwork’ s submission, the project treated accommodation as part of choosing the destination, rather than a logistical task to tackle once a city had been picked.
Before the move, bnetwork ran a binding hotel RFP across four cities: Barcelona, London, Madrid and Paris. Each was assessed on more than 50 variables and had to meet a peaknight threshold of 10,000 rooms. All four were measured against the same five-year framework, with identical contract terms, reporting requirements and rate controls.
The submission cited rising London hotel costs, limited exhibition space and post-Brexit logistics as reasons for
the review. Its four-star benchmark put Barcelona rates 28 % below London’ s.
The results so far ICE drew more than 65,000 attendees from 186 countries in 2026, according to the submission. That is up 10 % on the previous year and 25 % on the final London edition.
Stephane Teboul, co-founder of bnetwork, said:“ This project showed that accommodation can be much more than a logistical requirement; it can play a genuinely strategic role in the successful relocation and long-term development of a major international event. We are extremely proud of what we achieved together with Clarion Gaming, Barcelona ' s hotel community and all the partners who helped make this possible.”
Why it matters Relocating a flagship show is one of the biggest risks an organiser can take. The ICE case suggests that securing hard accommodation data early can shape – and de-risk – the choice of city itself.
The jury agreed. Sebastian Witt, chair of the UFI Industry Partners Working Group, said:“ bnetwork ' s winning entry stood out to the jury for its highly strategic use of partnership to solve a real industry challenge: the relocation of a flagship event.”
He added:“ The jury was particularly impressed by the initiative’ s innovation in engaging partners across the ecosystem, exactly the kind of forwardthinking collaboration this award was created to celebrate, and saw strong potential for the model to be applied by other large international events.”
Aditus was a finalist and ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions( CITEM), ILTM by RX Global and Map Your Show were recognised as Best Practices.
The partners’ voice within UFI The Industry Partners Working Group was launched by UFI in 2017, with Ravinder Sethi of R. E. Rogers India as its inaugural chair. Sebastian Witt, of jwc, now leads it.
The group gives UFI’ s partner members – the suppliers and service providers working alongside organisers and venues – a platform to discuss critical issues, share best practice and carry out sector-specific research.
Its flagship output is the Industry Partners Benchmark Survey, which measures how suppliers and their organiser and venue clients work together. Around 190 companies took part in the third edition. Booth construction was the most relied-upon service, alongside staff and security. Selected UFI Awards projects will be added to UFI ' s Best Practices Library and the 2026 winners will be recognised at the 93rd UFI Global Congress in Bahrain, 2 – 5 November. EW
60 Issue 5 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk