Great fans

“Trade fairs are fantastic. You meet all the foremost people in the industry.” There he stood, a genuine fan of such events, beaming happily as he made comments like this when I met him at the Spoga+Gafa garden and leisure trade fair. A genuine fair devotee, that he definitely is – but not by any means an exhibitor. Even though the company he works for, in a pretty important position at that, is one of those which can quite justifiably be described as an “industry leader”. An isolated case? Anything but. As can be heard again and again, we are already at the point where everyone thinks that trade fairs are a good thing, but not everyone is willing to make a contribution so that a reasonably complete overview of current trends can be presented. That is also how the situation is seen on the part of the most important – and this cannot be stressed too much – the all-important visitors to leading global fairs such as Spoga+Gafa: the bosses and buyers of the major customer companies, in this case the big DIY and garden centre operators, who are grumbling more and more loudly. After all, they came in reason-ably good numbers. The Australian market leader Bunnings, for example, arrived with a whole entourage, and managing director John Gillam expressly sought contact with the exhibitors in his presentation. It was not least thanks to EDRA, the European DIY Retail Association, and its general secretary John Herbert, that there was a broad spectrum of DIY retailers represented at the fair. Consequently, all the more pronounced was not only the disappointment but also the irritation about the number of gaps on the exhibitor side. The Association makes no effort to hide the critical tone in its Newsletter, which is read by top management: “Sadly, again some top name vendors did not have booths at the fair, but the executives from these companies were almost all present in Cologne and making contact with the buyers who attended the show. Whilst respecting that cost can be an issue, EDRA readers are disappointed that these companies did not show some presence in the form of a small contact booth at the fair, rather than meeting buyers in hotels or indeed outside the fair altogether.” That says it all. Rainer Strnad Managing editor Download: