Jewellery and gift fairs to join forces

Posted March 05, 2012 | By Coleby Nicholson

The Australian jewellery and gift fairs will co-locate in 2013 to create a combined event. Visitors can enter both events, without needing to re-register.

Expertise Events managing director Gary Fitz-Roy announced yesterday that his Melbourne Jewellery Fair will co-locate with the Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne from 2013.

A joint media release issued by Expertise Events and Reed Exhibitions explained that both fairs would be housed at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre next year (February 2-4), although each event will maintain its own separate hall space.

The innovative strategy does not end there. The agreement extends to the Brisbane jewellery and gift fairs, which will also co-locate in 2013, although the dates for the combined Brisbane event had not been finalised at the time of publication.

In his re-book letter handed to Melbourne Fair exhibitors yesterday, Fitz-Roy wrote, “The Brisbane Jewellery Fair will also be moving to co-locate with the Reed [Gift] Fair, and detailed timings and plans will be released at the end of March.”

He said that one consideration is to move the Brisbane fair from March to a little later in the year to allow more time between the Melbourne and Brisbane events to allow exhibitors to plan new releases.

“This move will also allow us to implement what we announced last year: to bring the Brisbane Fair in-line with the simpler Melbourne format with smaller locations and simplified stands assisting greatly in the overall costs of participation.”

While the gift fairs attract a number of jewellery exhibitors they are mainly fashion jewellery suppliers.

Two events under one roof
Reed Exhibition Director Stephen Steenson said, “The JAA Melbourne Jewellery Fair is a great event and has quite a different offering from our own jewellery exhibitors and we believe that staging the two events under one roof can only add value to all Victorian retailers.”

Both Steenson and Fitz-Roy were adamant that, while they would be working closely together, each fair would maintain its independence and identity.

Fitz-Roy told Jeweller that although some people have questioned whether Australia needs three jewellery fairs that did not weigh heavily on his thinking when he pitched the co-location concept to Reed Exhibitions.

“I am confident that there’s a need for three fairs each year especially given that Victoria is Australia’s second largest market. And I remember when some people said we didn’t need a second fair after Sydney. The issue has been, how do we ensure they are all successful and continue to grow?”

According to Fitz-Roy, co-locating with the gift fairs will benefit everyone because not only can retailers visit two fairs at the same time, it’s a win-win for exhibitors too. “Over the past year we have been listening to both retail visitors and exhibitors to see how we could improve their experience and we feel this will be a win-win for visitors and exhibitors, creating the ultimate trade marketplace for Australian retailers,” Fitz-Roy said.

Steenson explained, “It is ultimately about offering retailers more. We cover so much at the gift fairs and this is a great start but we don’t want to stop here and we’re so excited about what the future holds for all our segments.”

Cross promotion
“We are looking at how we can cross-promote both fairs and also feature combined activities like seminars and other educational forums,” Fitz-Roy added.

Fitz-Roy believes that the demand for the fairs is driven by the retailers and they are increasingly time poor, focusing their time in their businesses.

He says, “Retailers struggle to travel interstate or find time to meet with the supplier reps and the flip side is not all suppliers have the sales force they once had to adequately cover the various state territories. The Melbourne and Brisbane jewellery fairs have been positioned to service two of the biggest markets with face-to-face events in cost effective and time efficient way, because the buyers come to visit the sellers.”

Reed organises five annual gift fairs which will remain four-day events while the jewellery fairs will increase to three days in 2013.

Each fair will continue to manage separate registration programs and separate entrances, however once a visitor is registered with either fair, their entry badge will allow entry to both events, without the need to re-register. This will only apply at the Melbourne and Brisbane fairs.

“These moves underpin our commitment to ensure we run the fairs to service and meet retailer’s needs. It also shows that the two organisers – viewed by some as competitors – have the industry’s interests at heart. From our perspective we have listened to, and acted for our exhibitors, to ensure they get a better return.”

More reading:
How many fairs is too many?
Exhibitor banned from trade fairs
Image Gallery (2 Images)