And so to GLEE again….much talk of lower attendances and of who’s coming or not going to come next year. Overall the show seemed less busy than last year. We had an exceptionally busy show last year so in one sense it would have been amazing to exceed that again this year. However we also had the challenge of manning two separate stands having taken on the Haxnicks brand distribution – lucky that we were only two stands apart otherwise there would have been much huffing and puffing around the show.
I’m unsure if the Monday start is a real success, my feeling is that the Sunday is a useful day for several retailers to visit the show, and hence the Sunday to Tuesday is perhaps better.
The bigger question is the future of the show, since it seems that attendances at trade shows globally seem to be falling, and Glee is no exception, with a third day of the show now questionable since one can get round the show quite easily over 2 days now. There are also certainly not the same number of international visitors that we used to see at this show a few years ago.
No doubt many companies will be analysing the cost and return on investment of exhibiting, and hopefully this will result in the show evolving and perhaps changing to become more effective again in the years ahead.
Watch this space…