Peterborough 2016

[GJH]

Nobody can do anything about the weather but I was disappointed with the show itself because there were so many of the usual traders absent.

 

Talking to one or two of the others it appears to be a financial matter in the pitch costs have risen to the extent that it isn't worth some attending.

 

I've no idea whether it is simply a matter of passing on high venue costs or some other reason but if the trend continues it won't be worth going in future.

[Exhibitions Team]

Hi GJH,

Please can you let me know who was missing this year that you would like to have seen and I'll pass it on to the team who look after the tradestands. 

Feel free to comment on here or email me on philippae@warnersgroup.co.uk

Thanks

[StuartO]

Your people who book trade stands should have lists of traders who attended in each of the years and they will also know when and by how much the rates charged to them for pitches have changed.  Sometimes traders won't turn up having paid because of factors like weather of course but you should have records of this too.

 

The contributor above has given you his impressions of falling trade presence, as a concern from a paying visitor.  Instead of challenging him to give you a list of names (hardly a realistic thing for him to recall) why don't you just do the analytical work which you should be doing anyway to run your business properly.

[GJH]

As Stuart says, Philippa, it is difficult to remember names of particular traders. Indeed, the names of some aren't always obvious (one recalls the products more easily). Three I can remember are Borders Leisure, Dave Newell LVS and Autogas 2000.

 

I'm sending you an e-mail so if you send me a list of the traders who booked last year and those who booked this year I'll go through them and let you know.

 

Graham

[Exhibitions Team]

Hi Stuart,

We of course have already done this analysis, we do it for every show before the show. I was after one or two names in particular like the ones Graham has suggested to see if I could shed any light on their non-attendance. For example, Dave Newell and Autogas 2000 are both having a year off shows. Home-serve attended instead of Dave Newell.

I can confirm our rate-card for exhibitors at Peterborough this year didn't increase.

Thanks

[GJH]

Thank you for your e-mail Philippa.

 

Interesting that your rate card did not increase from 2015. Is that an indication that there was a big increase from 2014 to 2015 and some traders thought it was no longer worth it? ;-) Perhaps it is an indication that the rates were too high already. I used to run a family history business and we cut back drastically on exhibiting when that happened because it simply wasn't worth the extra sales to attend.

 

The traders I mentioned were only the few I could remember by name. In general it appeared (especially in the sheds which seemed to be half blocked off) that the show was much smaller than in previous years. Perhaps listing exhibitors going back 3 or 4 years might be illuminating :-)

 

Thinking back that long, has the disaster of 2012 put people off? I understand that several traders were upset by the fact that they were told they could leave early but the show would not be cancelled (and, therefore, they would not be compensated).

 

One of the attractions of a show is the opportunity to rally with friends but that is price sensitive. Stratford, for instance, has managed to continue to attract clubs despite the show itself being very small but only because it offers a weeks camping at a low price and at a time of year when the weather is usually better.

 

I have managed to buy the items I wanted either on-line or at a local outlet since returning and, as I mentioned in my initial post, if the downward trend of exhibitor numbers continues then the existence of such other outlets means that shows like Peterborough will no longer be worth attending.

 

Graham