Brand Licensing Europe’s powerful, free online Event Planner is now live.

From today, registered visitors can use the AI-driven platform to discover brands, connect with exhibitors, request meetings, receive tailored recommendations, and add conference sessions and networking events to their calendars.

BLE is the European epicentre for the business of licensing, brand extension and collaborations, bringing together thousands of the world’s biggest brands – Bluey, Pokémon, Barcelona FC, Natural History Museum, Le Petit Prince, Coca-Cola, LEGO and so much more – to meet thousands of leading retailers and manufacturers, including Primark, Marks & Spencer, Inditex, C&A, H&M, Dunelm, El Corte Inglés, Tesco and Lidl.

The Event Planner helps BLE’s 11,000+ annual attendees maximise their return on investment. Over 6,100 meetings were booked through the planner last year with clear evidence indicating attendees who register early and use the tool to pre-plan their visit enjoy the most rewarding experience at BLE.

A host of new features has been added to the Event Planner for 2026 to simplify and speed up search and further improve brand discoverability.

• Super Search bar: allows users to search across people, brands, exhibitors and content in one place, making it far easier to find specific brand owners, with results matched to individual visitor profiles.
• Saved Search: visitors can now set up daily or weekly email alerts highlighting when new people who meet their BLE goals join the platform.
• Recommendation Engine: recommends people, brands and exhibitors to users based on their registration form responses. New for this year: the engine will learn how users are using the platform and make further, highly tailored recommendations. For example, if they search for sports, the engine will push more people and brands from this sector.
• To-do list (exclusively for visitors): lets visitors save lists of people, brands and exhibitors they’d like to chat to, but may not have the time or confidence to commit to a 30-minute meeting.

Le diverse tipologie di pass

BLE attendees can access the online Event Planner and start requesting meetings by registering for one of several pass types:

• The Standard Pass (free before 5th October, £30 after): includes 20 credits to arrange meetings with exhibitors.
• The Explorer Pass (£295) for brands, retailers and manufacturers: includes 50 credits to arrange meetings with exhibitors.
• The Networking Pass (£1,295): includes 100 credits to arrange meetings with exhibitors and 25 credits to meet fellow visitors.
• The Service Provider+ Pass (£395): includes 50 credits to arrange meetings with exhibitors.

BLE takes place 6-8 October at Excel London and, with three months still to go, almost 250 exhibitors and thousands of brands are already confirmed and 2026 is expected to be BLE’s biggest ever.

Il commento dei professionisti del settore

Nuno Menezes, FC Porto Head of Brand Licensing & Product Development at FC Porto, said:

“We’ve been attending BLE for many years, and the online event planner has become an essential part of our preparation. It helps us manage leads efficiently, organise our schedule in advance, and maximise the value of our time at the event. It’s a crucial tool for making BLE as productive as possible.”

Craig Bendle, Product Licensing Manager, British Museum, adds:

“As relative newcomers to BLE (2026 will only be our third year), I must say the online meeting planner was invaluable for us to maximise our efficiency. It helped us to connect, communicate, and organise, overcoming any sense that we might have a steep learning curve at the start of our BLE journey. I can’t imagine the event without it, to say nothing of the build-up phase or the post-event follow up period.”

“The Event Planner is invaluable for attendees and exhibitors,” said BLE event director Ella Haynes. “Engagement has increased year on year since we first introduced the platform, and we know from customer feedback that the ability to connect pre-show is a game changer for ROI.”

“It’s exciting that, despite starting as a much-needed meeting booking function, the planner has evolved to be so much more than that – this year, attendees will have the ability to add agenda items to their calendars, block out time for browsing the show, check the route and time it’ll take to walk from meeting to meeting, and add exhibitors to their ‘to do lists’.”