Author Archives: Sharna

Exhibitor Show Highlights: Food

The following is just a taste of what’s on show at this year’s Casual Dining. Potts Partnership is launching its new food service range consisting of bestselling classic sauce recipes in practical foodservice packaging. Sauces include Hollandaise, Three Peppercorn with Brandy, Mushroom, White Wine and Garlic, Maple Chipotle BBQ Sauce, Steak Sauce, Bravas Sauce, as well as sauces for Bolognese, Stroganoff, Chasseur, Fish Pie, and Coq au Vin. (Stand U404) Lamb Weston/Meijer is launching its new Connoisseur fries at the show. They’re created from a selected variety to make sure consumers get the best tasting fries, which are authentic in…

Casual Dining previews new innovations for 2015

Casual Dining – the award winning trade event for the UK’s casual dining sector, has released its first preview of some of the new products being showcased this year. Returning to the Business Design Centre in London on 25-26 February, the award winning show caters specifically to the business needs of casual dining operators (including multiple and independent pubs, bars, and restaurants).  Thanks to a 45% increase in space for 2015, taking the show up to the venue’s upper feature level for the first time, there will now be over 170 exhibiting companies showcasing an innovative choice of food and…

Casual Dining Design Awards 2015 opens call for entries

Casual Dining, the award winning trade event for the UK’s flourishing casual dining sector, is now accepting submissions for its prestigious 2015 Design Awards. Reflecting the importance of design to successful casual dining operators – from conveying brand identity to creating ambiance and attracting/retaining custom – the awards will enjoy a prominent showcase at Casual Dining 2015, which returns to Business Design Centre in London next month on 25-26 February. The deadline for award entries is 24 January, with selected design projects competing for the top spot in the following three categories: Best Designed Independent Restaurant, Best Designed Multiple Restaurant,…

CEOs of TGI Friday’s, ASK and GBK to host Keynotes at Casual Dining 2015

Karen Forrester, CEO of T.G.I Friday’s UK, Stephen Holmes, CEO of ASK Italian and Zizzi, and Alasdair Murdoch, CEO of Gourmet Burger Kitchen, are among the big name Keynote speakers now confirmed for Casual Dining 2015. Catering specifically to the business needs of casual dining operators (including multiple and independent pubs, bars, and restaurants), the free Keynote Theatre programme, running throughout the two day show on 25-26 February at the Business Design Centre in London, will also include sessions by Anthony Pender, the new chairman of the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and managing director of The Yummy Pub Company,…

Visitor registration now open for Casual Dining 2015

With nearly a thousand visitors already pre-registered and 85% of its three-floor exhibition space sold, the second edition of the award-winning Casual Dining show looks set to reach new heights of success when it returns to the Business Design Centre in London next year on 25-26 February. The UK’s first dedicated trade event for the Casual Dining sector (including multiple and independent pubs, bars, and restaurants), Casual Dining has enjoyed strong industry support from the outset.  Its launch event, just nine months ago, attracted 3,655 industry professionals and went on to win a best trade show award at the Association…

Casual Dining wins Best Trade Show Award

Casual Dining’s organiser Diversified Communications UK is celebrating a big win at the exhibition industry’s annual AEO Excellence Awards, just four months after the show first made its debut at the Business Design Centre in London. Over 1,000 events industry professionals attended the awards ceremony, which was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Mayfair on 4 July. Casual Dining – the UK’s first dedicated trade event for the multiple and independent pub and restaurant sector – is the first launch show (UK and international) in over five years to triumph in the AEO’s hotly…

Casual Dining show shortlisted for two industry awards

Following its highly successful launch in London earlier this year, Casual Dining has been shortlisted for ‘Best Trade Launch Show’ and ‘Best Tradeshow Exhibition under 2,000sq.m’ by the Association of Event Organisers in its annual Excellence Awards. Casual Dining – the first dedicated trade show for the UK’s £6.9bn casual dining sector – is the first event in years to have been shortlisted by the AEO as a finalist in both categories. The exhibition industry’s equivalent to the Oscars, the double award nomination reflects the show’s broad appeal.  Attracting 3,655 attendees to its launch event, including many of the country’s…

New Casual Dining show serves up 3,655 attendees

Casual Dining – one of the year’s most hotly-anticipated trade event launches – proved a big hit with buyers last week.  The two day show, which opened at the Business Design Centre in London on 26-27 February, attracted 3,655 attendees (excluding revisits) from across the casual dining sector. Combining a bustling central trade exhibition with a packed programme of standing-room only Keynotes, Casual Dining delivered on its promise to be the dedicated event that this dynamic sector had been waiting for.  Offering established and new casual dining operators the opportunity to meet up with existing and potential suppliers, to network,…

Casual Dining opens in London on Wednesday 26 February

Casual dining is big business in the UK – and this week it’s about to get even bigger.  That’s the word from Diversified Communications UK – organiser of the new Casual Dining trade show, which opens at the Business Design Centre in London at 10am on Wednesday 26 February. The two-day event is set to welcome thousands of top buyers and senior decision makers from across the £6.7bn casual dining sector.  Many of the country’s biggest pub groups and branded restaurant chains will be in attendance, and nearly a third of all pre-registered visitors to date (30%) represent companies whose…

New Casual Dining show now sold out

Having sold out of all exhibition space last week, Casual Dining’s organiser Diversified Communications UK says its new trade event for the casual dining sector is well on track to being its most successful launch ever. Demonstrating the show’s enormous breadth of appeal to the UK’s pub and restaurant operators, visitor pre-registrations for Casual Dining have been averaging a hundred per day since the beginning of February.  In the past 24 hours alone, over 210 buyers and senior decision makers from 87 towns and cities across the country have added their details.  Over two thousand are expected to attend when…