The News
BAFTS Administrator goes to the fair !
BAFTS administrator goes to the fair!
On Monday 8th February, your intrepid administrator visited
‘Spring Fair 2010 International’ at the NEC in Birmingham.
It could have been a daunting experience with the scale of the exhibition, supposedly the largest trade fair in Europe with 2800 companies exhibiting, or so the catalogue says. Of these, 600 were new and there was also a code in the catalogue for ‘Ethical’ products. A plan was required if I was to survive, with a helpful warning from our very own Siesta Crafts of the consequences of not having a plan, cunning or otherwise:
1. Wander aimlessly around NEC.
2. Stumble onto Siesta's stand.
3. Be gobsmacked at the range.
4. Place big order with helpful staff.
5. Go home.
It would have been very easy to do (1) and after (5) to have added ‘exhausted’. The Plan.
1) to identify groups of possible organisations to visit
a. BAFTS connected organisations (28) – 8 specifically identified as BAFTS, the rest not so clear & 3 were ‘new organisations in progress’
b. to identify Fair Trade organisations (56)
c. to identify organisations in the ‘Ethical Product’ category – an eco walk of about 85 organisations. 2) use the interactive planner to work out a ‘route’ – a fantastic device on the website about which many exhibitors were unaware. 3) Be prepared to be flexible – to the extent that I followed plan a. (above) and nearly succeeded – falling short by 4. If you were hoping to meet me but didn’t, then I apologise. I also had random conversations with about 4 people about Fair Trade
The Visit Starting at about midday, I had 6 hours and managed (with walking time and waiting time) to spend about 10 minutes with each exhibitor. So even without walking around aimlessly, I still managed to be exhausted at the end. However it was a productive day and I now have several ideas about how to improve the BAFTS / Fair Trade profile for future events of a similar kind. These will need to be suggested to the Board before being put into operation, but they include: Increased information and publicity about BAFTS and Fair Trade.Advanced planning to benefit exhibitors and visitors interested in Fair Trade.
Watch this space….
Brian R Pepper,
Administrator, Feb 2010