IN MY VIEW
Is Our Industry Making An Exhibition Of Itself?
“I’m looking at two wet leisure industry exhibitions separated by seven days and just 13 miles. In fact, if I click between the two websites I can barely tell the difference between them. How does that make sense?” asks Jamie Adams
as anyone but in this particular instance it certainly isn’t true to say that if one is good, two are better. Surely no one is going to exhibit at or attend both, so how do you choose between the two? More importantly perhaps, are the questions of how did we get here and is this situation sustainable?
A
A STICK OF BRIGHTON ROCK SPATEX probably stuck with Brighton for too long.
There is an aspect of human nature that doesn’t really like change and, like an old pair of gloves or your favourite shoes, the show down in Brighton was comfortable. Having said that, I was always a little bemused by the industry’s attraction to Brighton. Being a coastal location it could never lay claim to being a central location so why did we like to be beside the seaside? The industry dabbled with London and Birmingham as alternatives but we always ended up paddling back to Brighton. Yes, it has a pier and a beach and some nice restaurants but even five or six years ago that was beginning to look as if it wasn’t enough. Interest was falling off and attendance was falling off. SPATEX could see the writing in the sand. In fact, what people were saying was quite clear. The industry wanted a better venue that offered easier access and set up for exhibitors and visitors. They wanted that venue to be in a more central location. Falling numbers made it pretty clear just how much they wanted that. The industry was voting with its feet.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
The UK economy was going through a pretty tough patch. In fact, we were still in the deepest recession since the war. The wet leisure industry certainly wasn’t immune to the affects of that recession and so falling numbers could perhaps be attributed to that.
92 February 2015 SPN
Recessions tend to make us nostalgic and cling to the old rather than embrace the new and so Brighton may have clung to its attraction in that way.
And Brighton is very attractive; pier, pavilion and all. I get that, but our business is located in one of the most beautiful parts of the British isles with stunning views and amazing places to visit. That doesn’t mean that when we’re trying to win new business we expect the customers to visit us just because where we live is pretty. The fact remains that SPATEX didn’t appear to listen to their customers and someone else did.
UK Pool & Spa Expo (UKP&SE) offered a wet leisure industry show in a central location and that was essentially all it took to get them off the ground. They simply pushed against an open door.
My problem with UKP&SE is that offering a new location was pretty much their only point of difference. As far as I can see, UKP&SE has done little more than mimic SPATEX with their copycat awards, training seminars and timing. Well, to be fair, they did achieve something else. They made SPATEX sit up and take notice of what people had been asking for far too long and move their exhibition to the Ricoh Arena; which probably solved the only problem that they actually had. The new SPATEX is bright airy and vibrant and has a real sense of purpose. Exhibitors feel re-energised and that has rubbed off onto the visitors.
But now we have two wet leisure industry exhibitions a mere seven days and 13 miles apart.
s Managing Director of Golden Coast, I know the value of a good exhibition as much
SO WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? Or rather, where will the future be held? Coventry or Birmingham? I just don’t think that our industry can sustain two national exhibitions. Both SPATEX and UKP&SE have moved into bigger halls for 2015 and both shows are promising more exhibitors and higher attendance than last year. I’m thrilled that our industry seems to have rediscovered its energy and enthusiasm but I’m also worried that having two shows will dissipate that energy rather than focusing it on growth. UKP&SE seems to have attracted a fair amount of support from the spa sector and you could argue that it will become a spa and hot tub exhibition.
But our industry isn’t structured in quite the same way that it used to be. Pool, spa and sauna businesses tend to be just that; they operate across the whole wet leisure market rather than specialising in any one area. There are exceptions, of course; but enough to warrant a specific spa show? I don’t think so.
UKP&SE promised to be a more international event, attracting exhibitors from Europe but I doubt that they will ever be a rival to Lyon. As for SPATEX, well, I wish they hadn’t buried their head in the Brighton sand for quite so long. Ignoring what their customers wanted seems to have left our industry with a problem that it needn’t have had.
SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN? 2015 will be UKP&SE’s third show and the second SPATEX to be held in the Midlands. That may sound like early days but I think that exhibitors marketing budgets and visitors finite time will bring this issue to a head pretty soon.
I don’t have the answer, but I do have this quote from one of the two shows own website. “Merge with the other show as the UK market is not big enough for both.” Whichever show you go to this year, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you find it worthwhile.
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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