The coach and bus industry always benefits from a large dose of positivity. One is coming in November, when over three days, its members will assemble in Birmingham for the Euro Bus Expo trade show and the routeone Awards presentation evening.
Of the UK’s only dedicated coach and bus trade show, things are progressing well. New names, strong interest and class-leading seminar content will sit with the opportunity to network, make connections, and do business without distraction, all while surrounded by a who’s who the of coach and bus supply side.
Euro Bus Expo is where the industry comes to build relationships, make decisions, and buy the things that will take operations forward. A decision by organiser Diversified UK and Europe in 2023 to move the sector’s trade show to biennial frequency has proved to be the right one.
The routeone Awards complement three days of show activity, serving as a hotly-anticipated gathering for styling and profiling after the day’s business on Wednesday 4 November. Most pertinently, this year’s event will again see 16 of the industry’s brightest people and best operators named.
Judging for that has commenced, with a first meeting of the eight-strong panel last week arriving at a 79-strong list of finalists. Being among those names is recognition in itself. This year’s shortlist captures the smallest operators to the largest, reflecting the makeup of the sector.
Scrutiny of entries by the judges so far has demonstrated that there is a lot of good being done, innovation on show, and positives for society being delivered by businesses and people across the coach and bus spectrum.
Something that routinely comes out of the judging process is how the Rising Star category attracts a large crop of entrants from a multitude of disciplines. That goes a long way to dispel disquiet that coach and bus does not attract new people into its ranks. It does.
Those individuals – young or new, sometimes (but not always) both – are keen to learn and advance. If they are not given that opportunity, the temptation to go elsewhere for it may arise. Their experiences and thoughts gathered from the industry’s supplier parc at Euro Bus Expo will be valuable to their employers.
And with Euro Bus Expo entry being free, what better way to bring on your business and the individuals within it than treating the latter to a day or three at the sector’s foremost gathering of products, services, vehicles and – above all else – people?
