We mentioned this one on the Page a few days ago, but it's worth more than a passing line: the Street Food Business Expo is back at ExCeL London on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September, and if you've never been, this is the year to plan around it while there's still time to sort pitch cover.

What's actually there

Around 100 exhibitors cover the supplier side of the business — equipment, packaging, payments, compliance, staffing and marketing — plus a Sustainability Trail for eco-focused kit and packaging. That's the trade-show half, and it's fine to walk it in an hour if kit isn't what you're short of right now.

The half worth actually planning your day around is the seminar programme. The NCASS Keynote Theatre is running sessions on legislative changes, sustainability and consumer trends, with a separate practical track covering scaling up, accessing funding, navigating local regulations, and growing a brand online and on the ground. For a trade with six-plus different licences and registrations to keep straight — and street trading fees that run anywhere from a couple of hundred pounds to several thousand depending on which council you're trading in — a session that actually explains a legislative change in plain terms is worth more than most of the stands.

Who it's for

Around 3,000 people attend across the two days, mostly traders, chefs and hospitality operators rather than the public — so it's a working day out, not a festival. If you're weighing up whether it's worth the travel and a day off the pitch, the honest answer depends on where you are in the business: brand new and still working out licensing is one case for going, three years in and looking for funding or a genuine expansion angle is another. Either way, going in with a specific question to answer — not just “have a look around” — gets more out of the seminar track than wandering the stands.

Worth knowing before you go

Tickets and the full seminar timetable are on the Expo's own site, and it's worth checking that closer to the date, since sessions can move. If you're trading a pitch that weekend already, this is exactly the kind of clash worth spotting now rather than the week before — better to skip it this year with notice than double-book yourself in September.

Anyone here been in previous years? Worth knowing whether the seminar track lived up to the billing before we send anyone down for the first time.