EVENTS
BY PATRICK GRIFFIN
VAPER EXPO UK 2018 - THE RETURN,
BIRMINGHAM. OCTOBER 26-28
There are three of us at Vapouround who have covered every
Vaper Expo UK event for the magazine and I am very happy to be
in this select group. (Owner Paul Caplin and Marketing Manager
Katie Loomes are the other two club members.)
I can quite honestly say that this particular expo was my favourite
to date, as all the individual show elements came together
perfectly to produce an event with extra ‘wow’ factor.
I particularly liked the stand layout and the shape of the space
where the event took place which made it really easy to find our
way around.
The wide central red carpet area spanned the entire length of
the hall bounded by the entrance at one end and the main stage
at the other. Five smaller red carpet strips ran perpendicular to
the main strip which effectively broke the vast floorspace up into
small chunks, making it simple to instantly locate any stand from
the floor plan.
The music volume throughout the weekend also seemed a little
quieter than on previous shows which really helps communicating
with exhibitors and visitors alike. I particularly liked how exhibitors
were encouraged to keep the music volume to a minimum on the
business-to-business day so that nobody had to shout to have
themselves heard.
Getting this element right is always tricky but I think the expo team
got it spot on.
The stands at the show were also fantastic this time around. New
boys in town Red Box Liquids really stood out with their huge red
134 | VM20
phone box being totally unmissable at the show.
Their stand was close to the Vapouround Club stand which
was also a new development for us. For this show we dropped
the casino which has been at the last two expos and went for
a massive cinema-style screen which was visible from the other
side of the venue.
The screen was used for our knockout Vapouround Club Cup
tournament which ran throughout the three days. The passion,
determination and competitive streak from all our competitors
was amazing to see. Every single match was hard fought. Our
first winner was Zap! who fielded former professional Fifa player
Dave Bytheway, 25, from Wolverhampton. Zap! left the weekend
with a free 12-month sponsorship package for the Vapouround
Club after taking the win 7-1.
My only disappointment at the Vaper Expo is that I never have
enough time to visit all the stands. This time I missed out on the
virtual reality experience at Black Ops E-liquids but my colleagues
who experienced it said it was amazing.
I also loved what Vape Airways (for more see page 118) did at
the show and I also might have enjoyed a strong cocktail or two
at the Vype stand.
This was another high energy, high octane vape experience from
the Vaper Expo team, a first class experience all round.