I've been to HT for the last 3 years and it seems perfectly sensible as far as trade shows go. You can buy, charter, finance and sell aircraft and buy many mods, equipment, avionics and interiors. There are industry insiders doing talks and the whole event is full of aviation experts to talk, network and meet with. What exactly is it missing? Genuine question.

Also Excel is huge so it looks very quiet when it isn't. I'd say it was a good 1000+ people yesterday with more to follow today now that MRO is open across the hallway. Rotary is a small industry, how many people were you expecting. And Excel has 2 DLR stops so it's hardly a disaster.

I'm not trying to say it's perfect but lets be objective at least?

"how many people were you expecting"

Duxford was 3 solid days of sore feet....

It was (then) well worth going to as a trade show and, as an exhibitor, it meant that I could see all the people I wanted to see in those days rather than travelling around the country, saving advertising costs (as most of the relevant people would see then stand there) and travel expenses. It simply isn't cost-effective any more.

I was being objective. The hall was half empty most of the time , except at the end of the conference sessions. Several exhibitors ,who had paid a lot for booths,hotels etc, said at the end of the day that they weren't getting enough interest ,and that included reps from the manufacturers. It is a mistake to mix conferences with exhibitions unless the latter are reasonably priced to reflect reality. Helitech doesn't ...it tries to have its cake and eat it.Result is disappointment for exhibitors and absence of customers.