Brand Licensing Europe, the hugely popular trade show for all things licensing will not be going ahead as a physical exhibition in London this October (5-7), but instead will form part of an ambitious global virtual event -Festival of Licensing, that will span four weeks (6-29 October 2020).
Delivering the news at a press conference on Tuesday (21 July), Anna Knight (pictured top), vice president of Informa Markets’ Global Licensing Group, which owns BLE, explained the reasons behind the decision to cancel the physical show.
“It is really important that we deliver a return on investment for our customers – both our exhibitors and our attendees,” Anna stressed. “With a number of countries still having international travel restrictions; a number of companies still having corporate travel restrictions and with the world not quite where we would all like it to be, I didn’t think we would be able to deliver the BLE that we all know and love.”
In its place, Festival of Licensing, organised by Global Licensing Group, in partnership with industry trade association Licensing International, will comprise four regionally tailored events (each lasting two or three days), with a UK/European focused programme kicking things off in the traditional BLE timeline.
Week 1: October 6-8 – Europe (powered by Brand Licensing Europe)
Week 2: October 14-15 – Asia (powered by Licensing Expo China and Licensing Expo Japan)
Week 3: October 20-22 – North America and Latin America (powered by Licensing Expo)
Week 4: October 28-29 – Global C-suite virtual conference, Licensing Leadership Summit.
The first three events will be time-zoned around the territories they serve (with Week 1 being on UK time) and will deliver the following:
IP discovery – brand and property showcases from up to 300 exhibitors, live License This and Pitch the Brands competition finals.
Content – live keynote performances from influential brands, addressing pressing topics, 100+ hours of live and on-demand territory and category specific content and a retailer-only space.
Networking – opportunities to meet, do business and strike deals through the Festival Matchmaking Service, enabling both pre-planned online video meetings and impromptu exhibitor booth drop-ins.
Experiences – Fully Licensed, a programme of live daily evening entertainment and experiences in each region, plus community and wellbeing featuring a celebration of the industry, a wide range of business/career advice and mentoring, a major industry fundraiser and wellbeing workshops.
The Festival will conclude with the Licensing Leadership Summit (which was originally due to take place as an in-person event back in March in New York).
Commenting on the news, Dan Grant, licensing director of Danilo, who usually attends BLE for the duration of the show and is also on the panel for the Licence This competition, told PG Buzz: ”Given the ongoing Covid-19 situation, I was disappointed, but not surprised to hear that BLE will not be going ahead as planned in October.” While he says “Nothing can replace the great face to face meetings we have at that show” he feels sure the Informa team “will do a good job in bringing brands, licensees and retailers together virtually with the planned Licensing Festival. What we have learnt this year is that the industries Danilo belong to such as licensing, greeting cards and calendars have had to be dynamic and adapt to ever changing situations, which has called for inventive thinking at all levels. Business must continue and it’s great that events such as BLE can be adapted so quickly to cater for the new norm.”
