e-Festival ëOn pauseí until 2005

Organisers of e-Festival, which was originally scheduled to launch at Stoneleigh Park over the last weekend in July 2004 this year, are deferring the launch until next year

Shropshire, England, May 25th 2004

ìRather than run the risk of the event not achieving its full potential this summer, we have decided, partly on the advice of some major players in the computer industry, to hold off the launch of e-Festival until next year,î said MD of e-Festival Ltd, Jeremy Spencer, a veteran of the UK computer magazine industry.

According to the organisers of e-Festival, interest, enthusiasm and support for the ground-breaking event have been almost universal since outline plans for the three-day event began to leak out around a year ago.

ìOnce we explained the overall concept to people, almost without exception they signed up to the vision,î Spencer explains. ìA few weeks ago we realised that we were in danger of running out of time, and today our board of directors decided we didnít want to launch with an event that might fail to do full justice to the concept. Weíll keep our powder dry and hold off until next year ñ itís the right decision to be taking.î

ìWith 20:20 hindsight, itís clear that we underestimated the lead times that some large companies need in order to turn a desire for action into reality,î Spencer says. ìAs fledgling event organisers, that is a lesson we have learned well ñ not least because some major players asked us to defer the launch until next year so that they could achieve what they wanted to at the first e-Festival. ì

ìMicrosoft, for instance, is very keen to bring its Business Support arm bCentral to the show, but didnít feel there was quite enough time to organise all the partnerships it wanted to have in place in time for e-Festival in July this year.î

e-Festival Ltd, the start-up company behind the innovative event has a three-year option on dates at Stoneleigh Park, and is currently in talks with the venue to finalise dates for 2005.

ìe-Festival has massive potential at Stoneleighñ something that almost the whole industry realised, but perhaps a little too late in the day for a launch this year. We donít want to damage the concept by forcing the pace ñ itís too good an opportunity for the whole industry for us to run the risk of spoiling it,î Spencer says.

ìBy the end of May 2004 weíll be in a brilliant position to launch e-Festival for 2005 ñ almost everyone is now aware of the concept, and over the last nine months many of the major players have helped refine and develop it further. In 2005 e-Festival will be all the bigger and all the better for our decision to defer.î

Naturally, all exhibitors and visitors who have paid for stand space and advance tickets will be refunded in full ñ before the end of May this year, Spencer asserts. ìWeíll be offering individuals who paid for their tickets up front free tickets to the 2005 launch as wellî, he added.

ìWith more time, weíll be able to capitalise fully on aspects of the event, such as the UK LAN Championships, running heats in 2005 that lead up to finals at e-Festival 2005. And now we are firmly on the radar of large corporations, there will be plenty of time for them to gear up to participate fully in e-Festival 2005.î