Sustainability and DIY take to the stage at Glee

Sustainability was the topic which dominated this year's Glee in Birmingham mid September. The Retail Lab, supervised by Romeo Sommers as creative director, had one of the key themes in its third edition: Saving the world: Nurturing, Nature and Animals. Incidentally, the second topic was Do it yourself (and have fun). Overall, the Retail Lab ran under the intentionally theatrical motto The Greatest Showroom - showcasing the latest trends and highlighting how a bit of theatre can entertain and engage customers, according to the trade fair's closing report.
According to event organisers, more than 550 exhibitors were present in five halls of the NEC exhibition centre in Birmingham. The offer was divided into eight show sectors. Elsewhere rebooking for the 2020 event reached 61 per cent during the show.
Including revisits, over 7 800 people visited the show, with visitors coming from over 40 countries. 40 per cent of visitors were new to Glee, with retail buyers with sole purchasing responsibility seeing an increase of 14 per cent year-on-year. 22 per cent of all visitors also had a purchasing budget over GBP 1 mio.
As an added bonus, the new Glee Connect matchmaking service helped exhibitors and visitors to strike meaningful connections with ease. Using AI technology, the connect platform was able to give all parties a higher return on time invested in their visit, organisers say.