For general enquiries please email hello@exposunderland.com or complete the form below.
Tel: 0191 561 1222
City Hall, Plater Way, Sunderland SR1 3AA
Meet the Team
Sarah Gilley
Event Director, Expo Sunderland
Sarah is a seasoned event project director who has spent the last 12 years leading major not-for-profit events for the largest trade association in the global energy industry. Sarah gained 14 years’ commercial experience and temporary structures knowledge in exhibition contracting, based at the National Exhibition Centre previously.
Sarah brings with her a passion for sustainable design and the circular economy with ambitions to develop and establish an exhibition industry with the local community in Sunderland through her role as Event Director for Expo.
Clare Wood
Principal Event Manager & Event Producer
Clare previously worked at Beamish Hall as its Conference & Events Manager and has a vast amount of experience in organising live public events and managing all aspects of the venue’s event programme.
As the deputy lead for Expo, Clare is taking forward the skeleton outline, producing the programme and designating content for all Expo events to bring them to life.
Clare is responsible for exhibitors (including those taking over a home or garden) and delivering the requirements of all sponsors, fringe event organisers, trade partners, speakers and presenters.
Clair Cogdon
Sales & Marketing Manager
Clair is our lead on all event sales and marketing across the Expo programme, having spent 30+ years managing client portfolios and customer engagement at Sunderland AFC, a highly respected organisation which is central to the city.
Clair has a strong sense of product and service appreciation and can translate her passion of matching your products with the right Expo events and earmarking spaces for meaningful activations.
Please get in touch with Clair if you'd like to discuss partnering with Expo.
Expo Champions
The first event advisory group was created in December 2023, bringing together more than 30 local businesspeople and educationalists from organisations including Tombola, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, Nissan and Vantec and our Expo Champions were born!
The group's current focus is on how Expo Sunderland's Your Future events can showcase the high-quality careers available in the city as well as pathways to opportunities. As Sunderland transforms and in a new way, exploring education and employment challenges and how they can support residents to access new and emerging careers in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automotive design, animation and graphics, biotechnology, healthcare and science, Esports, and film lighting and production.
Meet our Expo Champions
Event suppliers and contractors
Invitations to tender for exhibition stand builders will be released in March 2024 for the first of our 2025 events.
In brief, 45,000+ consumers, businesses and government professionals will be able to explore three compelling themes through a series of high profile, professional and large-scale events taking place over the late summer and early autumn of 2025.
These events will primarily be held at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland, be a mixture of consumer shows and B2B/G conferences, with a projected minimum collective of 300+ exhibitor stands and key event features across at least 5 events.
Each event will have between 50-100 exhibition stands, each requiring a minimum walk on package of stand, lighting and furniture with the option to upgrade specific zones or stands that set areas apart from others and price lists for exhibitors and sponsors to order additional items directly.
There will be requirements for registration build and management, seminar theatres, meeting areas, catering points, signage, and extraordinary features that bring each event to life, immersing all participants in new experiences and activities in an environment not normally associated with this scale and profile in Sunderland.
To help with this event Expo Sunderland will be interested in working with contractors with a proven track record of project management experience that includes locally sourced dedicated labour as standard who can evidence practise of sustainable methods and utilise eco-friendly stand build and associated materials that are practical, easy to install and innovative.
All event Invitation to Tenders (ITTs) will be issued via either the NEPO portal or the new OPEN portal, both of which suppliers can register free of charge.
Do this NOW as only registered suppliers to the NEPO portal will be automatically notified of upcoming Expo Sunderland tender opportunities and only those registered suppliers to the new OPEN portal will be notified of events later in the year.
Already registered? Don’t miss out! Ensure your contact details are up to date!
Click to register and/or update your details on both the new OPEN portal and the current NEPO portal: www.nepo.org
Once on the web page, click register, which is located at the top righthand side of the screen. A drop down menu will give you an option to register on either Open or NEPO, whilst some of the Expo Sunderland related opportunities will be on NEPO it is advised to register on both to ensure you don’t miss any relevant opportunities in the future.