Resources Exhibitions, managers of the UK\'s Natural Stone Show, have a new managing director with a wealth of experience in exhibition management in North America.

He is Mark Palmer, who ran his own company in Canada for 10 years before selling it and moving to the UK to be with his family.

In Canada he organised group exhibits of North American companies, including some involved in stone, at exhibitions mostly in South America and Asia. He also staged exhibitions for the medical, food and oil industries.

The next in the series of Natural Stone Shows (5-7 March 2002) is moving to the new, £250million ExCeL exhibition centre in London. Under the direction of Mark Palmer, Resources are introducing a new Internet service for the next exhibition to help exhibitors and visitors get together.

It is called a \'matchmaker\' programme and will allow visitors to prearrange meetings at the show with the personnel of exhibiting companies they want to see. It will help both visitors and exhibitors get the most from their time at the exhibition.

The \'matchmaker\' service will go live six to eight weeks before the show opens, although the exhibition\'s website is already up and running. You can visit it at: www.stoneshow.co.uk or access it via the Natural Stone Specialist website, which is: www.naturalstonespecialist.com.