This May, the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre worked with leading events services business, The Bilson Event Agency, to bring a BRAND-NEW trade expo to Perth.
The Health, Wellness & Fitness Expo is an established and well-known brand throughout Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, though it was time to extend its success across to sunny Perth.
The trade expo was held at the PCEC on 23rd May 2021, and according to Event Manager Deborah Bilson of The Bilson Event Agency, it was a roaring success!
THE BACKGROUND
The Bilson Event Agency has organised and managed over 16 annual Wedding Expos for 15 years now, and their team is well-established to execute large public trade shows.
PCEC has held every Perth Wedding Expo since 2005, proving a successful reputation as a premier exhibition venue. The Bilson team saw strong market support for a health and wellness expo based on feedback from vendors and attendees of the Wedding Expo in WA.
With that strengthened confidence from attendees and vendors, the Bilson team decided to bring the Health, Wellness & Fitness Expo to Perth for 2020 - and then, of course, COVID-19 hit.
Although the event was postponed in 2020, its debut in 2021 was made possible by the generous support of Business Events Perth and the high-level functionality, flexibility and attention-to-detail of PCEC!
“PCEC was the natural choice for us. It’s best to book really large venues because of the great local awareness - everyone knows how to get there, where to park and where to find accommodation. There are good crowds, and the venue can scale up quickly as attendance grows each year.”
- Deborah Bilson, The Bilson Event Agency
THE EVENT
As the Bilson team had so much experience with PCEC it was the natural venue of choice for the Health, Wellness & Fitness Expo.
In total, the event garnered support from around 50 vendors extending their expertise in everything from nutrition, supplements, healthy cooking and gyms to fitness, personal training and wellness-based social media influencing.
The event attracted around 2,000 attendees on the day who were able to enjoy extremely diverse activities thanks to the inherent flexibility of PCEC’s venue. From the popular seminar sessions to the exhibition area right through to the four different full-scale fitness classes, PCEC’s spaces could transform to suit all of the client’s requirements - a ‘blank canvas for big thinking’ indeed!
THE CHALLENGES
Of course, hosting an event during the pandemic has its challenges - but they were nothing PCEC and the Bilson team couldn’t handle. The Bilson team had their own in-house COVID plan which also applied to their vendors, plus PCEC initiated its venue COVID plan and deep-cleaning regimen as well.
Deborah Bilson noted that PCEC was very thorough, having supplied QR codes at the door plus a paper sign-in sheet for attendees without smartphones, along with plenty of sanitation stations and social distancing measures.
“With COVID, it’s difficult to tick every box - but we did for this event.”
- Deborah Bilson, The Bilson Event Agency
THE RESULTS
PCEC is thrilled that the first-ever Perth Health, Wellness & Fitness Expo went off without a hitch. For an inaugural event in Perth, the vendor and attendee numbers were strong. The client was highly pleased with the results and found the event to be a powerful connection-building outlet for people in the health and fitness industry in WA.
Both PCEC and The Bilson Event Agency thank all attendees and look forward to welcoming even more to the event next year!
