The BPMA and Sourcing City are delighted to announce the creation of Merchandise World.

Merchandise World is their new jointly owned event, which has been formed by bringing together Sourcing City Marketplace and The BPMA Show.

Merchandise World will take place on Tuesday 19th & Wednesday 20th September 2017 at NAEC Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG.

At the same time, the BPMA will independently run the prestigious BPMA Annual Awards Dinner on the evening of Tuesday 19th September 2017, with Promotional Products Week running a week or two later, thus enabling BPMA Members to proactively promote products discovered at Merchandise World.

The Merchandise World concept is unique in having two key elements, bringing the best of both worlds! The product exhibition stands will ensure that all invited visitors can see the latest and hottest products from the industry’s top suppliers, whilst Business VIP’s will also be able to have focused and meaningful conversations by appointment on the stands with ‘Conversation Areas’, or in the ‘Conversation Pods’ which have been seen at Sourcing City Marketplace for the past six years.

It is anticipated that around 200 suppliers will attend Merchandise World, each will be focused on delivering a valuable experience for all of the team members and management from the invited professional distributors.

To ensure that the exhibition stands and conversation pods are sold on an even and fair basis, there are set dates on which exhibitors can call to book their preferred stands. No stands will be sold or reserved before the allocated days.

The opportunity for distributors to optionally invite end-user customers to one of the days of the new two-day show, as trialled at the BPMA Show 2016, is also being considered.

David Long, Chairman and Founder of Sourcing City said: “We are delighted to be equal partners in Merchandise World with the BPMA, and our team are excited to deliver a great experience for top industry distributors and suppliers at Merchandise World. More importantly, we want to help create a unique event that will bring true value to everyone’s business.”

Matt Franks, BPMA Chairman said: “Sourcing City and the BPMA have a proven track record in delivering high quality events to our industry, and we’re thrilled to be working together to raise the bar even higher.  We know what it takes to deliver maximum value to both suppliers and distributors, particularly in retaining a focus on the quality and professionalism of those attending this exciting new event.”

The Sourcing City team have been contracted to deliver the management and organisation of Merchandise World, and they will be supported by the BPMA Secretariat. The event owners, BPMA & Sourcing City will work closely together to create the strategy for the event.

The popular BPMA Education Day will continue; however, it will be in a new format earlier in the year. These dates, along with the new dates for Promotional Products Week will be announced in due course.

MW17 Stand Bookings: To ensure that all suppliers have an equal opportunity to get the stand space and location they prefer; stands will go on sale starting from 30^th November.

The Merchandise World Floorplan and Price List will be sent to all potential exhibitors on Tuesday 15^th November 2016. A structured booking process will be announced at the same time and to be fair to all, no bookings will be taken outside of this process.

Published on: November 14th, 2016