Inside London's new-look ExCel centre
By IBI Magazine
IBI was given a guided tour of the new extension at London's ExCel exhibition centre on Monday, courtesy of the UK's National Boat Shows (NBS).
The new-look venue, home to the London International Boat Show, recently underwent a £160m expansion to attract more high-profile events to the capital. ExCel now covers around 100,000m2 of space (an increase of almost 50 per cent), with a dropped floor area, semi-permanent seated auditorium, dedicated DLR station and a new east side entrance.
From 2011, visitors will be encouraged to enter via the eastern side of the venue, where a covered walkway joins Prince Regent's DLR station to the complex. On entering the venue, visitors will immediately look down onto the watersports hall (pictured top left and bottom right), where a 71m x 24m x 1.1m pool with bleacher-style seating for 700-800 people will be showing watersports activities and other live demonstrations throughout the day. It's all about "delivering the 'wow' factor," says NBS.
Opposite the watersports hall will be the boardwalk area — a 5,000m2 dropped floor space with a height of 15m, allowing large power and sailboats to be displayed with their masts up. The price for exhibiting a 25m (82ft) powerboat in this area will cost just £3,500, says NBS.
Another new addition to next year's show will be a selection of used boats outside on the pontoons. These will be displayed alongside new sail and powerboats that are too big to fit inside the venue. ExCel's futuristic design, complete with stainless steel columns and glass corridors, should prove a hit with visitors at next year's London show, which runs from January 7-16, 2010.
(8 June 2010)
|
