56 | Country Focus: France
SUMMARY
■ Carrefour has been postponed to June next year
■ The event started in 1990 ■ More than 560 exhibitors and 11,500 visitors attended the 2018 show
■ The 2022 event will be the penultimate event before the Paris Olympics
PANDEMIC PUSH BACK
CARREFOUR STILL POSITIVE AFTER
Europe’s leading timber-only trade show is looking forward to its 2022 comeback. Mike Jeffree reports
First the pandemic pushed the Carrefour International du Bois (CIB) exhibition back from its scheduled May 2020 slot to February 2021. A further wave of Covid-19 infection in France led to a further delay to May. But finally the organisers bowed to the inevitable and cancelled, announcing that the next show would take place from June 1-3, 2022. “Underlining the commitment to run the show in 2021, everything was prepared; the
venue, the Parc Beaujoire in Nantes, was paid for, the visitors guide was printed. We were ready to go,” said CIB international executive Samantha Padden. “But the French pandemic social distancing rules made it impossible. It meant contacting every one of the more than 550 exhibitors and, as we have become a close community over the years, we phoned rather than send impersonal emails. People were incredibly understanding, but it was
still an emotional roller coaster. Cancelling the show for the first time in 30 years was traumatic.”
Once over the shock and complex process of cancellation, however, organisers Atlanbois started to look forward to the next event – and there’s clear confidence about the future and the show’s prospects for continued growth and development. The optimism is partly down to its global reputation. It’s now billed as Europe’s leading timber-only trade fair – a claim substantiated by the fact that the last show in 2018 attracted visitors and exhibitors from 85 countries. The positivity is also attributed to the supportive response of the Carrefour community when it had to be called off. Then there’s the event’s history and heritage to draw on.
The CIB was started in 1990 as an annual one-day conference and round table by Atlanbois, the regional timber trade association. While it addressed local and French national issues, it also had an international flavour from the outset. At the time, the port of Nantes and nearby Saint Nazaire were leading wood import hubs, plugged into the global trading network. “Nantes was particularly important for the tropical trade and from the early days the Carrefour attracted international attendees,” said Ms Padden.
As the event became established, companies Above: Attendance at the 2018 edition of Carrefour was 10% up on 2016 TTJ | July/August 2021 |
www.ttjonline.com
asked if they could have a promotional presence, with small stands alongside the
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