WHEN Web Summit 2016 gets under way in Lisbon, Portugal on November 7, it will be a significant new chapter for the event, but it’s very much business as usual for Interflow Logistics, the exhibition logistics experts at the worldwide tech forum.

Business as usual underestimates the scale of work taken on by Interflow Logistics for an event of the scale of Web Summit, which is described everywhere in the most grandiloquent terms imaginable.

“The giants of the web assemble”, says the Wall Street Journal; “Davos for Geeks”, according to Bloomberg; it “defines the ecosystem”, the Guardian tells us; while even CNBC’s relatively plainspoken “biggest event of its kind in Europe” barely hints at the significant of Web Summit for Europe and for the world.

The hard numbers give a sense of perspective on the rapid growth of the event. In 2010, Web Summit involved 400 attendees in a single room. By 2015, the same event attracted more than 40,000 to two halls in Dublin’s RDS exhibition centre.

This year’s anticipated attendance of 50,000 includes 7,000 company CEOs, and representatives of some 15,000 companies from 65 countries. The attendees alone read like a who’s-who of globally recognisable brands, from L’Oreal to Amazon, Facebook to GE, Disney to Twitter and Coca-Cola to Tesla.

And the Irish appetite for Web Summit continues to be strong, despite the extra distance to travel to the MEO Arena and the Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) in Lisbon. Web Summit 2016’s featured startups include at least 30 Irish firms, among them GD78 Music, Bizimply, Aylien, and WeSavvy. Other Irish firms in attendance at the event, either as a featured company or attendee, include Voxpro, CurrencyFair and Founders.

Perhaps this is because Irish firms exhibiting, as well as entrepreneurs from all 65 countries represented at the event, can depend on the sure-footed exhibition expertise of Interflow Logistics to help them take their places at Web Summit with complete confidence.

Interflow Logistics has a worldwide network of freight partners and agents which helps to remove the stress that’s associated with the logistics of ensuring that exhibition materials arrive at the appointed venue in time for the event.

Video Source: Youtube

Managing Director of Interflow Logistics Niall Thompson has frequently spoken about how properly planning the transportation of freight for an exhibition not only saves time and money, but also heads off a lot of heartache.

Proper planning and organisation are the principles that have seen Interflow Logistics appointed as the official freight forwarders for a succession of high profile global exhibitions and showcases, including the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe’s (SCAE) World of Coffee exhibition (taking place in Budapest, Hungary next June), as well as the Congress of the European Association for Osseointegration (EAO). Interflow Logistics is also involved in freight forwarding for the prestigious Compamed & Medica Trade Fair.

At these events, the business stakes can be huge—for many entrepreneurs it’s a rare opportunity to have an audience with key decision-makers, and so they cannot afford to be undone by technical hitches.

Interflow Logistics will play a crucial role in assisting exhibitors shipping materials to and from Lisbon for Web Summit. Typically, it’s the exhibitors, not the organisers, who are responsible for supervising shipments of materials—including necessary customs clearances—as well as the handling and receiving of shipments, and delivery, storage, dismantling and take-away of stands and other items. In these areas too, Interflow Logistics helps to ensure that the Web Summit experience for exhibitors does not entail worrying about logistical matters such as advance receiving and international customs, delivery of materials to stands, storage of empty cargo containers and boxes, and other freight-forwarding matters.

If you have an upcoming exhibition commitment for your company, contact Interflow Logistics today and take the first step in seeing how you can make stress about exhibition logistics a thing of the past.