International Conferences and Exhibitions Ltd (IC&E), one of the most active exhibition organisers in the Middle East, announced its decision to relocate its headquarters from London to Dubai in a strategic move aimed at serving the growing markets of the Middle East.

"The decision to relocate our headquarters to Dubai, the heart of the exhibition industry in the Middle East, is a significant one for International Conferences & Exhibitions and heralds promising new advancements in this area," said David Domoney, managing director, IC&E.

"Having played a key role in the development of the exhibition industry in the region for more than 20 years, we feel that the time is right to consolidate our position by establishing our actual presence here," he added.

"The Middle East is a region that offers tremendous growth prospects and has a resilience to the recessionary trends witnessed in other parts of the world. In addition, it is acquiring crucial importance in the global business scenario because it is the window to a very large and fast-growing market, comprising a customer base with high disposal incomes. Dubai's strategic location in particular makes it the ideal location from which to target the emerging markets of Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. "It, therefore, made sense for IC&E to move closer to the theatre of operations in order to service our clients better," said Domoney. He observed that the relocation would further enhance IC&E's ability to create events tailored to the region's requirements, while at the same time enabling it to leverage the accumulated local expertise to add value to existing events as well as create new trade shows.

"When International Conferences and Exhibitions was founded in the mid-1970s, the only exhibition venue was the tented structures alongside the creek," recalled Domoney.

IC&E now holds its exhibitions at the state-of-the-art Dubai International Exhibition Centre of the Dubai World Trade Centre and Airport Expo Dubai."

IC&E says a number of other niche exhibitions are in the pipeline. A new event is the Student Show 2003. Its exhibitions include Arab Lab and Instrumentation, Middle East Instrumentation & Automation, Global Entertainment & Media Exhibition (Gemex), World of Education, Gulf Education and Training Exhibition, Human Resources Middle East and the Arab Oil and Gas Show.