Business Events UK (BEUK), organiser of the unsuccessful South of England Business to Business Exhibition 2011, has been dissolved.

According to Companies House, the Norwich-based Business Events UK was dissolved on 5 July 2011, five days after the show.

Exhibitors to the show told EN that BEUK’s David Wood has been out of communication since the one-day show closed on 30 June at the City Cruise Terminal in Southampton. Several exhibitors have been chasing Wood for a refund after the show allegedly drew fewer than 50 visitors after promising more than a thousand.

“Our MD spent a great deal of time and effort producing a seminar training session,” said exhibitor Sue Lawrence, co-director of professional trainer Oakley Services. “We hired actors to come and do a simulated heart attack so he could talk about the need to have medical training at your workplace. There were three people in the audience, one was the wife of the actor, one was the actual trainer and the other was a competitor from St John’s Ambulance.”

“We were relying heavily on the money we would bring in from this and we saw absolutely nothing. Disappointing is not the strongest word we could use,” she added.

The exhibitors EN spoke to did not know the organising company had been dissolved.

The BEUK website is still advertising upcoming events including The Second East Midlands Business to Business Exhibition 2011 (Derby, 25 October), The North of England Business to Business Exhibition 2011 (Sheffield, 24 November) and the South Coast Business to Business Exhibition 2012 (Bournemouth, 1 March).

Wood could not be reached for comment.

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