POOL & SPA INDUSTRY

SPATEX 2022 – It’s All Change At Coventry!

As SPATEX 2022 returns to being a much-anticipated live event, running from Tuesday 1 to Thursday 3 February 2022, its familiar Coventry home, fresh from a £10m refurbishment, is going to look different. With a new name, sports bar, conference centre and updated exhibition hall – expect a whole new SPATEX experience

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ut with the old and in with the new! A smart, bright new logo announces that the Ricoh Arena, SPATEX’s home for the past eight years, has officially been renamed the Coventry Building Society Arena. It marks the beginning of a ten-year naming rights deal between venue owner Wasps Group and Coventry Building Society. The setting for Wasps Rugby, Wasps Netball and Coventry City Football Club, Coventry’s world-famous venue attracts over one-anda-half million visitors through its doors each year, and is preparing to welcome the Rugby League World Cup in October. Work is currently underway inside the venue. Familiar to SPATEX delegates – the Arena’s 6,000m2 exhibition hall is included in the major refit, and will feature new flooring, a partition wall and a new entrance for gates 27 and 28. The space will undergo a significant aesthetic overhaul, with the installation of a state-of-the-art digital and audio-visual technology system, to provide a flexible, modern and market-leading facility. The modernisation of the halls will seamlessly connect the space to the rest of the venue, providing access to up to 7,750 square metres of exhibition and conference space. A new state-of-the-art sports bar called ‘Anecdote’, located at the north entrance of the complex, will be immediately obvious upon arrival at SPATEX. It will serve ‘American-style food with a twist’, craft ales and cocktails and boast an array of TVs including wall-sized screens as well as interactive games such as table football. This, along with a new pavilion entrance on the south side of the venue, featuring the new Commonwealth Convention Centre lobby and dedicated art and gallery space, means that visitors to SPATEX will see a lot

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of changes. Exhibition Organiser, Michele Bridle said: “The show’s Coventry home is ideal for SPATEX’s needs – it’s intimate and friendly with all the facilities of a top-notch venue and centrally located with excellent international and domestic transport links. We’re not the only ones to recognise its worth – along with it being the stage for some of the Commonwealth Games action in 2022, Coventry is also the current holder of the much-coveted title of UK City of Culture.”

RECORD SALES Over 90% of exhibition space is sold with some six months still to go! Michele advised: “We’ve received a fabulous response with exhibitors hungry to snap up space to showcase products that haven’t received full public exposure because of the lockdown. There seems to be huge pent-up demand and all the signs are that

SPATEX’s 25th live show will be one of the best yet. “SPATEX 2022 will have a very international flavour. We’ve signed exhibitors from all over the world, including Hungary, the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France and Germany and we are looking forward to welcoming several new ones. With many of our regular exhibitors requesting larger stands, we’ve had the very welcome job of restructuring the floorplan to free up more space. “We are particularly looking forward to hosting a special SPATEX networking party on the evening of Wednesday 2 February – providing an opportunity for the industry to be together for the first time in two years.”

UPSKILLING A very popular feature of the show – ISPE are hard at work curating a live programme of workshops including aspects of the latest Health & Safety regulations affecting everyone in the pool trade, water testing and treatment, filtration, pumps, covers, liners, and much more.  It’s not too late to participate and anyone who is interested in giving a generic 20-minute presentation should contact ISPE’s General Secretary, Ross Alcock – email ross@ispe.co.uk or call 01603 499959. SPATEX 01264 358558 www.spatex.co.uk

The modernisation of the halls will seamlessly connect the space to the rest of the venue, providing access to up to 7,750 square metres of exhibition and conference space” www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk 30/08/2021 15:23