Excel, Canning Town, London

Huge venue, great facilities, had a great 3 days at taste of Christmas.

Excel as usual is a fantastically organised venue home of the World Travel Market. This year yet again it’s smooth operation has gone perfectly with around 50,000 visitors to this exhibition and some 4000 exhibitors. Always buzzing, excellent seminars and the who’s who of the travel world are all here.
The only faults as everyone knows is that the DLR tends to get quite frantic! And the food served here isn’t always the best due to the large numbers here.

The Excel Centre sits in a weird bit of London.

Why's it weird?

Because it's like the area around it suffered from a very neat and tidy apocalypse. There seems to be around 10% of the normal number of people you usually see on the street and on the road. It's quite disconcerting, but not entirely unpleasant to not be able to see another single living human. Outside. In London.

Anyway - I went down to the Excel to check out The Anarchy In The UK Roller Derby tournament. Which was fantastic. I'm at most London Rollergirls event, which are always ace - but to see London (who are a great team in the grand scheme of things) take on some of the best in the world was amazing.

Plenty of carnage on the track, coupled with the general friendliness of everyone involved ensured a great weekend. Big kudos to Montreal New Skids, who are not only a great team, but amazingly entertaining - roller derby team dance routines are one of the best things ever.

The Excel itself is exactly what you'd want from a venue. Lots of space, lots of facilities for all the people and reasonably priced food and drink on offer. Actually I was pretty impressed by the range of food the Excel had, bagel, Asian, pizza and more - not too shabby!

extremely flexible exhibition venue as well as conference venue with loads of cafe's and facillities. Host some of Britain's best events with a really good location and many nearby hotels and transport links. vast, vast space with dividing walls and many conference rooms, just over the docks from London city airport

Attended World Travel Market here in November 2010 in the new ICC halls. Opened in July, they up the capacity of for Exhibitions and events by another 30,000 square feet. A new entrance on the Eastern side of the complex from Prince Regent DLR stop opens into a central concourse with glass roof. In the concourse there are many food retailers selling everything from pie and mash to sandwiches and sushi.
The new halls are on either side of the main concourse and link through into the existing facilities and Platinum business suites.
The design is very modern with white floors and red and yellow accents in the media suites etc.
Great modern centre, the only thing that help it to lose a star is the price of the food - pretty exorbitant for the captive markets at trade shows. To be fair that is the case at most centres at Birmingham and Manchester too.

Went to the GrandDesigns show on the last Sunday - we were staying close by at the Ramada Docklands so could walk to ExCel. If you come by DLR, there is a stop direct at ExCel.

Large exhibition space with plenty of facilities and eating places. There wasn't an obvious cloakroom which is a shame as we had to carry our coats round during our 3hr visit.

I'd previously been to ExCel by car to the Gordon Ramsey Christmas show and would be very happy to drive there again - loads of car parking and not badly priced considering it's London.

I just attended World Travel Market at the Excel and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. I though it was going to be hard to reach, lost in the east end of london. But DLR made access a breeze and the conference floor works very well and is open enough.

The high ceilings ensure it's not too hot, which is probably the worst in a conference where you have to stand for 8 hours and running around.

Otherwise, if it's not for business. no need to go there!

Huge Event Conference Centre, well served by public transport. Lot of space for exibitors. Facilities to have a full day there.

World Travel Market there is a good experience for everybody keen on travelling (especially business!). Every year.

Went to the 'Global Peace and Unity’ event here last year.
The venue is HUGE.
Its about three times the size of Olympia.
It is in central London.
Many boxing fights and concerts take place here.
Definetly a good place to go.

I have been to the excel 3 years in a row for the previously mentioned global peace and unity event! The venue is huge, so make sure you remember which entrance you came from and where you parked. This year the car park was further away as there is reconstruction going on but there were buses taking you to and from the excel. Normally the parking is very conveniently located. It is great for concerts, seating up to 20,000 people easily. A wide variety of food (halal) is available, ranging from burgers to noodles. The only downside is the lack of toilet facilities considering how many visitors there are, there are not enough toilets! The queues for the ATM are very long so it is best to bring plenty of cash with you, the price of food and drink is inflated, with a burger meal costing £8+!

This is a fairly large, modern conference and exhibition centre built on land along side the former Royal Victoria Dock in London’s Dockland. It is easily accessed from Custom House station on the Docklands Light Railway.

There are several large areas where events can be held, and I believe they can be combined to make larger areas.

There are several places to buy food and drink from, ranging from restaurants to kiosks. Outside the main building there are more restaurants and pubs.

There are also free-to-use atms located near downstairs in the main building.

I visited for an exhibition and found the whole experience enjoyable.

This is a HUGE conference and event venue with a million and one different rooms and corridtors. The layout is actually quite simple once you get your head around it.
It’s not the easiest place to get to from central or west London but it is reached by DLR and has a number of hotels within walking distance. Inside Excel are coffee shops like Costa and shops like stationary shops.

I also attended the aforementioned “Global Peace and Unity” event.
Well catered for as all of the stalls sold Halal food,the place was massive and had reat facilities such as ATM machines which were needed as the was so much to buy there. Look great from the outside aswell with its Louvre-esque entrance.

Excel is basically a warehouse for exhibitions. It’s a huge aircraft hanger style hall. The exhibition halls, each of which could house a small moon, line a central walkway. There’s plenty of food outlets along there, but they are all chains. Yes you can find something nice to eat, but don’t expect it to be original or a bargain. Most of the loos are squirreled away downstairs, as are the cash points. On one side there’s also cafes overlooking the river beyond the halls. It’s not somewhere you’d go unless it was to attend an event. But I guess it does pretty well at housing them!

The area around Excel is also well catered with hotels, generally relatively new and cheaper than average for London, making this not a bad place to stay in London. You can get there via the Docklands Light Railway, which is an experience in itself!

If you want to see what’s on you can check this website: http://www.excel-london.co.uk they host a mixture of private/trade shows and shows open to the public.

Yeah this place is vast and a little out of the way to be a really attractive place to hold a conferene/seminar. When I attended a web conference there the wi-fi was spotty and they had very few plugpoints for laptops etc (whether that was the fault of the organisers or the venue I'm not sure).

What is the venues fault though is the overpiced food and drink! As there's not much around in terms of facilities/shops etc you are a 'captive audience' and that means they can charge extortionate prices from everything from coffee to beer, sanwiches and crisps etc.

I have attended a number of seminars at this venue, and it is extremely grandiose in size. It is kind of in the middle of nowhere and is bordered by a waterway. However inside the centre there is an abundance of restaurants and take aways so you are never without food. The centre is easily accesible with Custom House being the nearest station. Staff are friendly and helpful to point out directions and where particualar seminars are taking place.