New Industry Focused Event Exceeds Expectations!
13 August 2008
restaurant 08 Melbourne took place over two days (26 - 27 May) at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The event was an incredible success with 4,335 restaurateurs, café owners, chefs, restaurant managers and sommeliers visiting the event over the two days, marking a fantastic launch to this inaugural industry focused event for Victoria. The visitors had the chance to meet over 160 of the best restaurant suppliers providing the very best in regional produce, innovative new products and services for their business and pick up expert advice from industry leaders in the free talks and demonstrations.
Richard Wright, Managing Director of Single Market Events Australia, the organisers of the event said, "We are delighted with the industry support for the inaugural restaurant 08 Melbourne. The Victorian restaurant and café industry has responded to the need for a focused forum where they can come together to network with their peers, source new ideas and walk away with important contacts for products, services and the best produce for their businesses. The Melbourne event has made its mark and the event will only be bigger and better in 09"
With many key industry leaders both speaking and demonstrating at restaurant 08 Melbourne there was plenty of business advice and tips for the visitors to take away and put into practice. In the Café Live feature Phillip Di Bella, Managing Director, Di Bella Coffee was part of the session on Build your café brand and customer loyalty, "It is great to finally see an event that is not based on numbers through the door, but rather based on quality industry people through the door..... A true credit to the organisers of this wonderful event.... the speaking divisions set up was an absolute professional touch....."
Necia Wilden, Journalist, The Age, was one of the presenters of the Talk Business theatre, "I was impressed by the industry's strong show of support for the event. I was also impressed by the calibre of the producers who exhibited."
What the exhibitors said...
"As a first time exhibitor at restaurant 08 Melbourne, I must say the number of visitors to our stand, the quality of enquiries and amount of new business leads, exceeded our greatest expectations. We also enjoyed the friendliness of other exhibitors and organizing staff, the social drinks on Monday evening and the general buzz of the exhibition. Congratulations on your first Melbourne exhibition. See you next year."
Brenden Abraham, Director, Tea Leaves
"restaurant 08 Melbourne provided an ideal platform for us to launch our new integrated system into the marketplace and the interest generated was fantastic. Because the event is so industry specific we were able to reach decision-makers that we have otherwise found hard to reach."
Chad Egan, Secure Trac
"We exceeded our expectations for the two days within the first two hours"
Paul Hobson, Director, Dilga Organics
"restaurant 08 delivered the customer through the door that was promised and it provided opportunity to meet and talk with existing and potential customers. For Western Plains Pork as a producer from country Victoria, we often don't get the time to come face to face with the people we work with and it was great to meet people in person and put a "face" to the "voice". An excellent opportunity to work in a positive environment with an appropriate target market".
Judy Croagh, Western Plains Pork
"The duration of the show, being two days, provided ample time to showcase our extensive range and speak to a good selection of customers... Participation levels were high and the quality of people that patronized the event were inline with our target audience... Tomkin are very happy with the leads that we have received from the event as it attracted a broad range of potential and current customers covering not only restaurants but also hotels, bars and clubs".
Julie Vajda, Tomkin Australia Pty Ltd
