Our New Name and Venue - Letter from Richard Morgan, SDSC-UK President

Why a new venue?

I am excited to invite your participation at SDSC-UK, for the first time at its new venue at Telford International Centre.  

This is the latest development in a journey which started with the Hereford Defence & Security Expo in 2017, and progressed through various iterations of the Three Counties Defence & Security Expo (3CDSE) at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern up to 2022. 

For an event focussing upon cutting edge science and technology, it feels highly appropriate to move the event to the home of Thomas Telford and the birthplace of the industrial revolution.

Why Telford?

Ever since 2017 we have been walking a tightrope, seeking to balance on the one hand increasing demand for exhibition space, and on the other hand the pleas from our loyal contingent of participators from 2017 onwards not to make the event too big.  

Those participators report that they did more business in Malvern than they could do at London Excel and other big trade shows, the scale of which, they advise, can often make engagement with key contacts difficult.  They were clear that quality of attendees rather than numbers is the important factor, and an event attended by all of the principal participants in the Special User group of the UK Defence & Security sector was unique.

However the event had rather outgrown the original venue at Malvern which was originally built for agricultural-related purposes.  Telford is a modern purpose built exhibition centre with far more in terms of facilities suited to our increasingly sophisticated requirements.  We can achieve managed and contained growth of the event, as well as break out events and private meeting facilities.

There are 3 hotels on site and several other hotels within walking distance or a short drive of the venue, plus extensive on-site car parking  as well as space for external exhibitions. 

New Home

The Telford International Centre is a family owned and operated venue.  We wish to thank them for their warm welcome and incredibly helpful attitude, and we know they share our determination to provide an outstanding experience to all participators in the convention.  

We are confident that our customers will agree after experiencing this venue that the convention has found the ideal location for further development of this event. 

Why the new name?

We believe that all our participators appreciate the advantage and added value represented by the increasing participation of US DOD in this event.  

In 2023 we will be joined by 4 different divisions of the US Military:  US Army DEVCOM, US Army SOCOM, Foreign Competitive Testing and SOFWERX.  

DEVCOM report placing $1.5 million of new business with our exhibitors since 2021.

In the course of creating these relationships, we attended SOFIC in Tampa Bay in 2022.  It became clear that the name Three Counties Defence & Security Expo/3CDSE did not translate well to our US contacts, and we therefore searched for a new name which would resonate on both sides of the Atlantic.  

We are grateful to Major General Robin Anderton-Brown, the principal MOD Patron of this event since its inception, for suggesting the new name, considered to be more inline with the current incarnation of the event, reflecting the development achieved from a regional, to national, to international fixture in the Defence calendar.

Local infrastructure

What we also learned at SOFIC was the importance of local infrastructure around the event and venue.  A great deal of business is done in the bars and restaurants of Tampa Bay, outside of the main event.  This was an infrastructure which we could not recreate at a remote site in Malvern, even with numerous “pop up” facilities.

Telford is hardly Tampa Bay!  However, the Southwater centre where the venue is located provides 16 catering facilities:

Alberts Shed, Wildwood Kitchen, The Wrekin Giant, Costa, Wagamama, Miller & Carter, Nando’s, Zizzi’s, Bella Italia, Flying Elephant (Pan Asian), Pizza Express, Hummingbird Café, Novello Lounge, TGI Friday’s, and The Liquor Lab  

Catering facilities are also available in the hotels. 

There is a Cineworld IMAX cinema on site, and for the more energetic an ice rink and ten pin bowling alley!

Also building on our Tampa experience and in particular the laid back ambience of the legendary Bad Monkey Bar, we have introduced a pre-event networking opportunity for the evening of 31 October. Southwater may not quite be Ybor City, but it’s as close as we can get!

I look forward to welcoming you to SDSC-UK 2023!

Best regards

Richard Morgan, President, SDSC-UK and 3CRDSC