FACE TO FACE: with Paul Sweeney, Event Director, The Cleaning Show

In the fifth in a new series of Face to Face interviews, Neil Nixon speaks with Paul Sweeney, Event Director of The Cleaning Show.

Why should industry professionals visit the Cleaning Show, taking place on 18-20 March 2025?
In the same way a huge global audience converges on Amsterdam for Interclean every two years, I hope the UK cleaning and hygiene sector will do the same for The Cleaning Show in London next March, as again it only happens every two years. It’s the UK sectors flagship event and a chance for the whole industry to get together as it likes to do. Attendees will be able to see over 150 exhibitors and be part of the biggest show ever held in London since it moved there in 2015. Alongside the exhibitors, there’s a full conference programme, with in excess of 40 speakers from within the industry addressing many of the topics and challenges facing the industry. In addition, we all know this is a hugely sociable industry, so there are lots of get togethers planned throughout the event. So overall as there’s so much going on, I hope that people will plan accordingly to ensure they can attend for at least a couple of days.

What is new for 2025 as compared with previous events?
For starters, we have 30+ more exhibitors than the 2023 show. Of the 150+ exhibitors, nearly 70 are first time London exhibitors, so plenty of new faces to meet, offering new solutions. The conference format is different, in that we’re focussing far more on panel discussions rather than individual presentations. Visitor feedback showed people found those far more engaging, so we trialled that format at the Manchester show last March and it was well received. For the first time those attending the conference can obtain CPD (Continuing Professional Development) accreditation, which is helpful for those looking to develop and enhance their learning abilities. We’ve also launched The Cleaning Show App.

What are you doing to create more focus and attractions for the FM sector?
We’ve seen real organic growth in attendance from the FM sector at recent shows. For example, Atalian Servest, Bidvest Noonan, Compass, Equans, G4S, ISS, Mitie, NIC, OCS, Sodexo and Vinci all attended London 2023, to name a few. We want to keep the momentum going, so we’ve invested in research to improve our reach even more within FM, with the aim of finding new companies, contacts, the best media to use, what would make them attend our show etc. For the first time, we’ve also included an FM panel as part of the conference as a nod in the direction of the increasing importance of the sector. Yvonne Taylor from Compass, who of course is hugely supportive of the cleaning sector, will moderate the panel and has been hugely helpful in putting it together.

What makes London’s ExCel the best venue for hosting a cleaning and FM-focused event?
Perhaps a bit of history is required here to put this question into perspective. Prior to ExCel, The Cleaning Show ran in Birmingham every two years. However, later editions of the show, had seen a notable drop in attendance year on year and, I understand particularly from London and the South East. I’ve been told by a trusted source, that the show in Birmingham, was “dying on its feet” Those organising the event at the time decided to move it to London ExCel in 2015, in the hope that it would “breathe new life into it”. It worked and they’ve never looked back. Except for 2021 (the first show post covid), every London event has seen an increase in attendance. I won’t lie, ExCel is a hugely expensive venue to run a show, but it’s the best in London. The facilities are excellent, their team are good to work with and they have invested in a huge expansion programme, including new conference and f&b facilities. They see themselves as competing in the world events market and want to have the best facilities to attract not just UK but global events. It’s also so much easier to get there now than it used to be, particularly with the opening of the Elizabeth Line, which goes right under central London. So, I think The Cleaning Show deserves to be staged at such a prestigious and ambitious venue.

How is the Cleaning Show using technology to make the visitor experience more rewarding?
We’ve launched The Cleaning Show app, which has replaced the traditional printed show guide. It’s a far more sustainable way of providing the show information than a show guide, but for me the best bits are the engagement tools. Everyone can select conference sessions and exhibitors they want to visit but most importantly, it enables exhibitors to engage with visitors and vice versa in setting up meetings before and during the show.

Since your appointment as Event Director you have steered the show to new heights. What has been the secret to your success?
That’s kind of you to say so. Four reasons I would say. Firstly, I’ve been lucky. My predecessor ran London 2021 and Manchester 2022, which were the first two shows post covid and they were tough gigs for obvious reasons. By the time I joined the business, covid was in the rear-view mirror and I was fortunate enough to benefit from that. Secondly, I’ve just tried to do the basics well. I’ve been in events (UK and international) for about 25 years and know how they work. However, I was new to the cleaning sector and needed to learn and understand how it works and what it needs from me to make the show successful. So, basics like meeting customers at their offices, attending industry functions, becoming part of the industry and not taking anything for granted. Being visible and active within the industry as much as I can, which I hope has built up a degree of trust in me and the show. I’ve worked for other event organisers that focus on just taking the money once a year with little or no customer interaction beyond that. That’s not the way I like to operate. I’ve still loads to learn and lots of people to meet and that’s what I’ll continue to try and do. Thirdly, I have a good team around me. Michelle Andrews has been on the show since 2017 and has been very supportive to me from day 1. She may not like all my ideas and processes, but just raises her eyebrows, and gets on with it and that makes life so much easier. My colleagues from Ops and Marketing work across multiple products at Quartz but they’re good and I trust them implicitly. Finally, the industry is hugely supportive of the event. I really sense that it’s important to the sector to have a good show to be proud of. Exhibiting is expensive but time and time again, my exhibitors invest time and money to commercially support the show. Without them, we wouldn’t have any visitors, and without visitors, we wouldn’t have any exhibitors. Therefore, we must keep working incredibly hard to deliver a show that the industry is proud of and wants to continually support.

How have you seen the event evolve over the years and what would you like to see going forward?
I’ve only run London 2023 and Manchester 2024, so it’s difficult to say how I’ve personally seen it evolve beyond achieving more exhibitors and visitors. However, the morning that London 2023 opened, I was standing at the main entrance when I overheard a comment from the CEO of a large contract cleaning company say “wow! In all my years of coming to The Cleaning Show I’ve never seen one look like this. It just looks so much more professional” I was thrilled to hear that but can’t claim credit for it. I think it’s down to the fact that the industry itself is evolving and becoming more professional, with the increase in technology, software and sustainable solutions but also the fact that exhibitors are investing in creating fantastic stands, to ensure maximum impact when you first walk in. That indicates to me the importance of The Cleaning Show to them. What that CEO saw in 2023, was a front row of brilliant space only builds from companies including Bunzl, Nilfisk, Karcher and Northwood Hygiene. That’s quite a line up!

To finish, can you give us a peek into what we can expect from the Manchester Cleaning Show in 2026?
The Manchester Cleaning Show exists to cater for those primarily in the North of England and Scotland. We sell and market the show as a smaller regional event, but it’s USP is, that over 80% of attendees, don’t go to the London show. Therefore, exhibitors are generally seeing a different audience to London. What to expect in 2026? A bigger show and an earlier dateline. We were turning business away at Manchester 2024 as we couldn’t sell anymore and there was another show in the hall next door. That other show, like us, wants/needs to expand. As they are there annually and us every two years, understandably, they got priority on dates. We then had two choices: go later in March/early April or end of February. I opted for February, as the other dates were too close to Interclean and that can impact sales.

http://www.cleaningshow.co.uk