Every year Team Tamebay heads up to the Birmingham NEC for the Internet Retailing Expo. I’ve personally attended the show there for the past 5 years.
And this year the reasons for that annual pilgramage were obvious unlike never before: IRX is the must-go-to event for anyone interested in the ecommerce industry. And as we saw this week at the NEC, ecommerce is in rude good health and IRX gets bigger and better. That’s a sign of the prevailing confidence in the industry.
A few reflections:
Drones: We saw a delivery drone in action courtesy of Scurri. As you can see from the picture these machines are quite sizeable.
I’m just not sure the whole idea of them being a realistic mode of delivery any time soon is anything more than fanciful. But we shall see. It was fun seeing the drones in flight.
Meet people: IRX is a great opportunity to hook with people and converse with friends old and new.
Chris and I must have chatted with hundreds of people while we were there.
It was nice to say hello to eBay consultant Jane Bell and David Brackin of Stuff U Sell to name but a few.
It was also gratifying to see people Tamebay knows well exhibiting at the IRX for the first time.
Our friend Jan from 1stoporders.co.uk had a stand for the first time and 2nd Office led by Carlo brought his team all the way from the Phillipines to meet the masses.
And let us not forget Tayyab Akhlaq’s company Genie and the Geek as well as Currencies Direct managed by Deepak Goyal: both were there with stands, promoting their services.
IRX Delivers: Combining IRX with the EDX (the delivery expo) was a smart move. It meant for a bigger event that combined useful synergies with delivery services and all under the same roof. Hopefully that will be repeated next year.
And don’t forget: we are still waiting for the IRegg. Sealed Air’s Professor Packaging boxed up a lone egg with their new product and we hope that it will survive a Royal Mail delivery. We wrote about that and await the outcome.
If that egg arrives intact, Chris will fry it for breakfast.
All in all, Internet Retailing Expo was a great event and a worthwhile trip. Long may it continue.
3 Responses
“we hope it will survive a royal mail delivery ”
And yet there is a great big Royal Mail red banner ad at the top of the page
Extolling customer confidence and safe delivery
Was a good show and good to catch up with people and make new contacts. Shame I missed the drone though.
It was good to catchup & innovations in etail industry. A must attend event for etailers.