Full-scale venues open online for virtual events

The venue construction company, V-Ex provides a virtual exhibition and conference platform that is currently being used for over 150 virtual events and experiences.

Founder and CEO Roland Renshaw comments, “We needed an exhibition park style location online to host a number of co-located virtual trade shows. The V-EC is there now to service immediate demand, however we are also talking to the owners and operators of several iconic physical venues about building digital twins, so they can continue to service customers during lockdown and beyond.”

The V-EC site offers over 200,000 m2 of exhibition floor space and has another 36,000 under construction (Hall #5). The first three large halls are already spoken for with Hall #1 being used to host an automation and general engineering show, IndustryExpo, which has seen over 250,000 visits since it opened in January 2020.

Hall #2 is booked for online printing industry trade show printing-expo.online which is due to open its doors for a preview in November this year, while online machine tool show VirtualMachineXpo.online is currently in-build in Hall #3. The futuristic looking Hall #4 is currently still available, while there are several smaller halls and conference venues on the site that are also ready for immediate use. With over 500,000 visits having been made to online events hosted on the V-Ex platform footfall has been significant even without a central location for the larger trade shows.

With this level of visitor interest already established, the V-EC is likely to attract more co-located trade shows and conferences as the industry adapts to offer an online alternative to physical events. While current Covid-19 restrictions are definitely fuelling demand, the platform has been developed continuously for the last ten years and has a large number of users taking advantage of its sustainability credentials, which, along with 24hr availability and visitor convenience, is long-term where a lot of its advantages lie.

The launch of V-EC is significant for many reasons, not least that it establishes the first large-scale exhibition and conference venue in the world to go on-line and be ready to host multiple events. Culturally there has been a seismic shift in the way people interact with the world outside and very much like the shopping, music, gaming and film industries, the move to online now seems inevitable for exhibitions and conferences.

When live events do return, organisers will need to employ a hybrid delivery format to ensure events remain successful. Using a platform such as V-Ex will make sure the event is scalable allowing physically hosted content to be streamed live alongside 3D exhibits and experiences that can be explored on-demand.

V-Ex has been an established provider of virtual events and digital services for over 10 years. The company owns and operates an online platform that delivers unrivalled digital experiences, from large-scale events, supplier conferences and exhibitions to sales and training environments. The event delivery team works with the 3D design and development department to create stunning visual experiences that deliver both live and permanent projects to unlimited global audiences.