FROM THE ORGANISERS' DESK - ARCHIVES

News item posted: 2011/02/11

SARCDA CHRISTMAS PREVIEW DAY TO BE CANCELLED

SARCDA Christmas 2011 will be a four day exhibition – from Thursday,18 to Sunday, 21 August 2011 – with no Preview Day.

The decision to cancel Preview Day is mainly in response to exhibitors’ feedback from the questionnaire sent to all SARCDA Christmas 2010 exhibitors.

The majority of exhibitors opted for Preview Day to be cancelled (45.4% were in favour of cancelling, 38.3% wanted Preview Day to continue and 14.8% of exhibitors did not respond to this question). 68.9% of exhibitors voted against a five day exhibition (i.e. no Preview Day and five ‘normal’ exhibition days).

The decision to cancel Preview Day was supported by several other factors:

• In retrospect, differentiating between VIP and Elite buyers was not necessarily a good thing and exhibitors risked offending buyers not deemed to be ‘Elite’.
• The ‘quality’ of the list – on which the event’s success depended – was always a contentious issue. Many exhibitors simply submitted the same list year after year, which defeated the object of creating an exclusive event for exhibitors’ current top buyers. But this premise in itself was flawed: exhibitors found it difficult to refuse buyers who asked to be put on the list (even if they were not necessarily ‘top’ buyers and, similarly, SARCDA was often put in a difficult position when buyers made direct contact with us demanding to be included in Preview Day.
• Buyers’ response to Preview Day did not seem to warrant the money spent on this event: of the 5 000 invitations extended, only about 2 000 Elite buyers attended (this ratio did not change materially whether the invitations were posted or emailed).

Cancelling Preview Day and returning to a four day exhibition is in keeping with international trends, which favour this format.

Kind regards,
TERESIA STANDER
EXHIBITION MANAGER