After record numbers poured in last year, ONS Norway set for 17-19 August 2015, has been canceled due to low oil prices, low activity and great uncertainty in the industry, which led to a low number of registered exhibitors, the ONS Foundation said on 7 April.
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Image from ONS 2014. Courtesy of ONS. |
ONS says that the exhibitor registration was good until early in the year, before it stagnated. There have also recently been a number of cancellations by companies that are struggling.
“Too few exhibitors means that we cannot create a meeting place with the famous ONS quality that exhibitors expect and deserve. We must take the consequences,” says CEO Leif Johan Sevland.
Exhibitors and other parties involved were informed of the cancellation on 7 April. Registration and stand fees will be refunded to the registered exhibitors, who will also be offered space at ONS 2016.
“We know that the event would have been very good. The conference themes were in place, and we had several new elements that would have drawn many visitors,” says Sevland. “But, we also need many exhibitors to create a good meeting place. We’ve done everything we could to get exhibitors, but the situation in the market is unfortunately beyond our control.”
“For ONS 2016 we see no lack of interest at the present stage. With the exception of 2014 we have never before seen the booking numbers we are currently seeing for ONS,” says Sevland.
The ONS team is now focusing on ONS 2016.
The 2014 ONS that took place last August, saw record attendance numbers at 91,682. That number does not include visitors of the event’s festival in Stavanger harbor.
Organizers said 30,531 visitors attended the show on 27 August alone, setting a new day record for the event that's held in Stavanger every other year to Offshore Europe. The ONS conference had 700 delegates every day and 1380 exhibitors.
Sevland attributed the record attendance to new venues, hotels, new varied conference sessions, and better infrastructure.
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