Within the overall concept of the Festival of Stamps being held in London in 2010, the international exhibition activity will be the eight-day exhibition held at the Business Design Centre in Islington from Saturday 8 May to Saturday 15 May 2010. This will utilise the entire exhibition and conference facilities that exist at the Business Design Centre (BDC), which is significantly greater than that being used by Stampex.

The BDC facilities to be used consist of three main components, the Main Hall, the Gallery Hall and the Conference Centre. The Main Hall consists of the entrance area known as the Village Green, the Mezzanine and the Gallery Bays. The Village Green is the space where exhibition frames, the Information Stand and the Royal Mail stand are located during Stampex. The Mezzanine area is that occupied by dealer stands and some other attractions. As far as the Gallery Bays are concerned, a few near the cafeteria are used for more dealer stands, while the rest have remained unutilised during Stampex. These three components of the Main Hall are envisaged as being used entirely for dealer and postal administration stands.

The Gallery Hall consists of two parts, the main Gallery Hall and the Gallery Atrium. The Gallery Hall is accessed from the Gallery Bay level. The Gallery Hall and Gallery Atrium are planned entirely for competitive exhibits. More on the competitive exhibits later.

The final main area, the Conference Centre, consists of an auditorium (with retracting terraced seating to leave a level floor space) and eight rooms. The auditorium and five of these rooms have movable adjoining walls to enable these five rooms to form a single open space with the auditorium. All are interleading with each other, and are also interleading with the Gallery Hall and the Gallery Bays of the Main Hall. This third space may be used for various attractions, or additional exhibits or dealer stands. However, additional seating and catering will be part of the plan for the Conference Centre.

We shall also have the use of the ground floor Executive Centre and a number of other smaller rooms. These are still early days so the precise use of the Conference Centre space, the Executive Centre and other rooms that may be available has still to be considered. All spaces that will be used are accessible by lift, so there are no wheelchair restrictions. The BDC has an excellent website that features a virtual tour of all the spaces we shall be using.

As far as the competitive exhibits are concerned, the intent is to run two International Exhibitions of four days each, back to back. Some of the exhibition classes would be part of the first four-day exhibition, and others part of the second four-day exhibition. This way, if we had, say, 1200 competitive frames available for use for each of the two consecutive four-day competitive exhibitions, a total of 2400 competitive frames would be available over the full eight days.

Since May 2010 will be 100 years since the accession of King George V to the throne, it is planned to include a special one-frame competitive class for philatelic material depicting King George V.

A website will be established shortly where up-to-date information can be found. This would be covering the venue, the layout and the availability of stands, along with details of the specifics of how the competitive part of the exhibition will be run, as well as accommodation and transportation options. Information on these and other aspects would appear on the website as they evolve over time.

Even with more modest ambitions than some of the previous London Internationals, funding remains an issue. The sale of stand space and frame fees for competitive exhibiting will generate funds, but this will not be sufficient to run the exhibition. We do have some support from Royal Mail, and the ABPS is also providing what support it can. We shall, however, still need to generate funding from whatever sources possible. We anticipate seeking sponsorship from various organisations for some specific aspects of the exhibition.

The other crucial element in any undertaking of this magnitude is the people resources to make it happen. Many people have opinions (sometimes critical) on what should be done, but most do not go beyond voicing an opinion. We are fortunate in that we have been able to assemble a strong team of capable, knowledgeable people for the initial phase, but we shall need many more volunteers as we proceed.

Julietta Edgar

Royal Mail is very conscious of the need to uphold the tradition of UK stamps set for us by Rowland Hill. I wonder if Rowland Hill ever imagined the legacy he was leaving the world when he introduced the Penny Black in 1840? As early as 1890 there was an international stamp exhibition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Penny Black and the growing hobby of stamp collecting. So an international exhibition in the UK every 10th year is another one of those great philatelic traditions and one that Royal Mail has been involved with for some time now. Royal Mail is delighted to confirm that 2010 will be no different.

Royal Mail has supported major domestic stamp exhibitions for half a century and sees them as an opportunity to help maintain, support and promote interest in the hobby of stamp collecting whilst also providing specific services to collectors. Through a combination of exhibition features and show products Royal Mail has encouraged a wider audience to previous shows, particularly casual collectors, impulse buyers and new customers to purchase.

The idea of a festival of stamps is a fitting celebration of the breadth of subject matter depicted on stamps plus the passion and enthusiasm that drives collectors and philatelists alike. Royal Mail will work with the BPMA to help identify potential satellite sites for the festival and specifically look at how the themes and contacts that we make through the annual stamp programme could develop opportunities for the festival.

The exhibition at the Business Design Centre will be the main event and in line with previous international shows we intend to take stand space, plus develop a range of products to promote the show and support Royal Mail's attendance. We are still in the early stages of planning and have yet to decide the type and extent of the product range. Royal Mail will look at how we can support the show theme of George V, the philatelist King as well as providing the usual philatelic services. As with previous exhibitions we intend to issue show products in the years leading up to the festival and the earliest the first product could be issued is 2008. Royal Mail has already provided financial support that has allowed the management committee to secure the venue for 2010 and as part of our planning we are looking at what further support we can give.

Stamps reflect the cultural heritage of the UK and the festival will build on this by introducing stamps to a wider audience. This is important to Royal Mail as through our own experiences we recognise the value of this type of inclusive approach and its ability to create wider exposure of stamps and the idea of stamp collecting as a stimulating pastime. With this in mind, Royal Mail's main priority will be to ensure that the exhibition caters for all collectors from the absolute beginners right up to the serious philatelists.