Trade shows – Who needs them?

After a tough season in which events crowded ever closer, discussion has hotted up on the role of exhibitions and conferences. Editor Stuart Banks invites you to air your views

Show-weary businessmen were saying ‘never again’ at Aviemore in October. But then they were saying the same thing at Trondheim, at Sparsholt, at ANUGA in Cologne and at Thessaloniki. They say it every year, yet they still come back. So how seriously should show organisers take their critics? In my view, seriously enough to consider radical changes, while not being panicked into immediate major restructuring.

Things were brought to a head in the current season because of the juxtaposition of several events, notably the powerful Aqua Nor – augmented on this occasion by the European Aquaculture Society’s conference – and the Scottish Fish Farming Conference and Exhibition in its new, late-in-the-year slot.

Inevitably, SFFCE suffered from comparison by exhibitors. It was too remote…expensive to reach…too parochial…not sufficiently international…too few visitors…away from the alternative social amenities of a city…Glasgow was better…

These subjective views of some salesmen were backed by a rumbling groundswell that Aviemore should go biennial. But approached objectively, the criticisms are not so weighty, and almost all could be directed equally at Trondheim. It too is remote, lacking city-scale amenities, and anybody who has exhibited there will know that costs do not stop with the purchase of expensive stand space.

Dr Peter Landless, SFFCE’s organiser, points out going biennial would disrupt the continuity of an event valued by Scottish fish farmers who could not afford the money or time for a trip to Norway every other year, educational though that might be.

To a large extent, however, the Norwegian show’s success is symptomatic of the industry it represents. And because fish production and exportation is supremely more significant to Norway’s economy than to the UK’s, it naturally gets more government backing. In proportion, Scotland’s show is creditably high profile, attracting a ministerial opening which at least indicates that the government is aware of its importance. That was not always the case.

In fact, SFFCE remains one of the largest exhibitions in Europe devoted purely to fish farming, though it may have lost its once undisputed second place to events like Bordeaux and Torremolinos.

These shows were linked with the highly influential appeal of EAS conferences, bringing in hundreds of delegates worldwide, and the Society’s dynamic president, Dr Michael Poxton, has made it known that he would welcome a dialogue with the Scottish show organisers which might bring EAS to Scotland as it did this year to Norway.

Is that desirable? At Aqua Nor the conference element has always been a low-key affair, subordinate to the exhibition, much of it in Norwegian. The Scottish show, on the other hand, grew from its origins in Oban as a gathering of informed people, swapping experiences in an embryonic industry over a dram or pint, listening to ‘lectures’ which kept them abreast of technical developments and the politics of affecting their business. The exhibition consisted of a scattering of a dozen or so tables.

Times have changed out of all recognition, we know. Industry