Riding on the back of next year’s Olympic fever, Ipex will return to London in 2014, organisers have announced.

Informa Print Group says the new location will be the ExCeL exhibition and conference centre in the heart of what the city likes to call the Royal Docklands. Dates are March 26-April 2.

Director Trevor Crawford says Informa is “extremely excited” to be making the move following detailed consultation with exhibitor and visitor groups.

“It offers considerable new opportunities for the expansion and development of Ipex going forward,” he says.

“While our UK audience will always remain critically important to the show, Ipex is a truly global event, and the attraction of London as a venue, and the remaining legacy of the 2012 Olympic investment into the area, will certainly add to the attraction for our international visitors.”

ExCeL London, which will play host to seven Olympic and Para Olympic events in 2012 – the most of any venue – is based on a 40 hectare campus offering 100,000 m2 of flexible exhibition space, five on-site hotels, bars and restaurants for after hours networking, and excellent transport links to central London.  This includes easy access to London City Airport and the Underground, three dedicated onsite light railway stations, and providing parking for nearly 4000 cars.

Ipex moved from London’s Earls Court exhibition centre to the NEC in Birmingham in 1980.

“This is a significant decision in the history of Ipex that sees the exhibition return to London,” says Crawford.  “Until now the NEC venue was the only one in the UK that could handle the sheer size of the event.  Since the expansion of its event halls in May 2010, ExCeL London has now become the perfect venue for Ipex to begin the next chapter in its development.”