The choice of the Business Design Centre as the venue has been controversial as it has been criticised as too small and in a poor location. Attempts by David Springbett and others to develop an alternative exhibition based at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in East London were abandoned when the FIP granted the London 2010 show patronage.[2]
Competition classes
The exhibition was the first to change the competitive displays halfway through and featured the following classes:
By changing the display frames halfway through, over 2400 frames of material were shown.
Palmares
The Grand Prix d'Exposition went to Alan Holyoake for ‘The First Line Engraved Postage Stamps‘ (98 points).
The Best in Class awards went to the following exhibits:[3]
Traditional Class: Yo-Chi Kim (South Korea) for Great Joseon and Daeha Empire (1884-1909) (96 points)
Postal History Class: Steven Walske (United States) for Heart of the West: San Francisco as a Postal Hub from 1849 to 1869 (98 points)
Postal Stationery Class: Alan Holyoake (United Kingdom) for The Introduction and Usage of the Mulready Envelope and Letter Sheet Stationery (98 points)
Revenue Class: Jukka Mäkinen (Finland) for Sweden, the First Revenue Stamp Issue of 1811-1844 (95 points)
One Frame Class: Pradip Jain (India) for The Development of the Airmail Route Cairo-India 1918-1929 (94 points)
Aerophilately Class: Peter Motson (United Kingdom) for Newfoundland Airmail Stamps & Airmail Flights: 1919-1948 (97 points)
Thematic Philately Class: Joshua Magier (Israel) for Land Cultivation from the Beginning of Agriculture to the Present Time (97 points)
Youth Class: Livie-Laure Tillard (Canada) for La Marianne de Briat surchargée St-Pierre et Miquelon (84 points)
Literature Class: Ulrich Ferchenbauer (Austria) for Österreich 1850-1918 Spezial Katalog (96 points)