A group leader travels with the hosted buyer group and escorts them to their group appointments. They are the key contact for your hosted buyers and for us during the show. As an IMEX intermediary it’s your responsibility to assign a group leader for each hosted buyer group you manage. 

Group leaders  should:  

• Have contact details for all  your  hosted buyers  in case of emergencies  
• Have  the group appointment schedule for your hosted buyer group, and accompany your hosted buyer group to all  group appointments 
• Tell us straight away if any hosted buyers cancel their attendance or do not attend. (If a hosted buyer does not check in to their hotel for their first night’s accommodation, we’ll cancel any further accommodation we’ve booked for them.) 

We’ll host one group leader for a minimum of 10 confirmed hosted buyers, unless otherwise agreed.  

Your group leader should register as soon as possible, and we will approve them as a hosted group leader once your hosted buyer group reaches the agreed minimum number. Once approved the hosted group leader will be able to confirm their travel and accommodations preferences and submit their travel reimbursement claim.  

If you’re the group leader let us know so we can add the role to your registration.

Group appointments allow multiple buyers to learn about a destination or supplier at once - often in a booth presentation format.

We make a few group appointments for your hosted buyers each day your hosted buyer group is at the show. This gives your hosted buyers the opportunity to hear presentations from exhibitors on their booths.

Group appointments are scheduled between 11:00am and 4:00pm.

More information about group appointments

Group appointment preferences

We’ll email you on August 1 to ask for your group appointment  preferences.

To give us these, select group appointment preferences from your IMEX account and the hosted buyer group.  Search the list of exhibitors in the drop-down menu, select the exhibitor’s name and click include.

The more you select, the more likely it is we’ll be able to match your preferences. If you have a large hosted buyer group, or multiple hosted buyer groups, we recommend selecting as many exhibitors as possible as we spread out group appointments between exhibitors. You can also select up to five exhibitors you don’t want group appointments with, by selecting the exhibitor’s name and clicking  exclude (this is optional).

Complete the additional information box with any details that will help us set the right group appointments for your  hosted buyer group(s). Click  save and repeat these steps for each of your hosted buyer groups.

August 11 is the deadline for selecting your group appointment preferences. You can amend your selection any time up to this deadline.

Matching your group appointment preferences

While we make every effort to match your group appointment preferences, this is not always possible, particularly if your clients apply late to join your hosted buyer group. Some group appointments may be allocated to your hosted buyer group based on exhibitors’ requests to see hosted buyers from your region.

If you’re representing a hotel chain with properties in fewer than six destinations and have multiple hosted buyer groups, we won’t allocate all your group appointments to those destinations, as we spread out group appointments between all our exhibitors.

Group appointment schedule

To view the group appointments for your hosted buyer group, sign in to your IMEX account, select group schedule and the hosted buyer group.

Group appointment attendance

If there are any group appointments your hosted buyer group cannot attend, let us know by  August 25.

To Be Decided (TBD) appointments

Group appointments are for a minimum of six hosted buyers. If your hosted buyer group has fewer than six  approved hosted buyers, TBD group appointments (except for group appointments on your booth) will be blocked out in your hosted buyers’ schedules. When your hosted buyer group has six or more approved hosted buyers, these will change to confirmed group appointments.

Combined and split group appointments

We may combine hosted buyer groups of fewer than six hosted buyers if they’re from the same company. We may split hosted buyer groups of more than 10 hosted buyers into groups of between eight and 10 hosted buyers to allow them to fit comfortably on to exhibitor booths.

Have any questions? Check our FAQs page or contact us: 

Call: +44 (0)1273 224957
Email: hosted@imexevents.com