Produced by Advanstar Licensing, Brand Licensing Europe is the foremost pan-European intellectual property marketplace, showcasing more than 2,200 brands from over 280 top-tier brand owners. The event took place at London's Olympia, Oct. 15-17th.

The show was the most highly attended event to date, with an increase in total visitors European over the previous year. BLE 2013 promises to be another year of lively business, cementing the show's reputation as the top event for the European licensing industry.

BLE had a new floor plan this year, dividing the show into three distinct zones: Brands; Art, Design and Image; and Character and Entertainment. The new layout enabled a more focused visitor experience.

The Character and Entertainment area remained on the ground floor of Olympia's Grand Hall, as it has done in the past. Moving upstairs to the newly renovated Upper West Hall was the Brands section. A dedicated Art, Design and Image area was now housed on the venue's gallery level.

Darren Brechin, event director, BLE, says that each of these three new areas allowed visitors to navigate the show floor more effectively. The areas had simple, yet effective, branding techniques, says Brechin, and two new staircases have been added to allow for better attendee flow upstairs from the ground floor. A tailored marketing program also complemented the new distinct areas and was targeted to reach a wider and more diverse audience than ever before.

It is apparent that there is great interest in brand licensing that brought so many interested parties to the event.

Retailers Forum Magazine encourages our readers to participate in th many fine trade shows our industry runs annually. Many are featured monthly in our wholesale merchandise magazine, Retailers Forum.