Following the WHO declaration that the Covid-19 outbreak is now a pandemic, Make It British Live! have taken the very difficult and heart-breaking decision to postpone the event until further notice. “The number of cases in the UK is rising and is expected to increase dramatically over the coming days and this makes us deeply concerned about the risk of contamination to our exhibitors, visitors and their families, by making the trip to the event next week,” said event founder Kate Hills.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly and we have tried hard not to do this, but we no longer feel that the decision to keep ‘business as usual’ is in line with worldwide medical developments,” she adds “By the time the event is due to take place we will be in the midst of a national emergency. Whilst we really want to continue with the event, we believe the right thing to do is to make this decision now to give enough time for everyone to cancel travel arrangements or hotels.”
Make It British Live! are currently working on a virtual expo which will take place online at the end of May, with all visitor tickets being automatically transferred to the virtual expo as well as being redeemable against tickets for a re-scheduled live show. The virtual event will include everything that the live event does, and each exhibitor will have their own virtual booth that they will be able to ‘man’ for the duration of the show using a webcam that can be attached to any computer. “This virtual expo model and the software platform that we have chosen for it has already proven to be successful for other large events, and we are confident that it will give you the platform that UK manufacturers and British-made brands rightly deserve.”
