Dwindling numbers of visitors at Glee Petindex

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Trade shows for the pet supplies sector have long since ceased to sell themselves. Most event organisers have to battle to hang on to or even consolidate their position in the market. There are many factors that dictate whether a show meets with the approval or disapproval of the visitors. Is a venue easily accessible? Is the service on site good? Can I meet the desired target group there? These are the questions that visitors and exhibitors ask themselves before deciding to attend a fair. It is hard to pinpoint the reason why visitors failed to show up at this year's Glee Petindex in Birmingham. Even before the credit crunch and property crisis, the mood in the UK was anything but rosy. The banking collapse has further stoked fears of a recession in the domestic economy. The leader in the respected newspaper "The Observer", for example, read: "It's not just the banks: Britain itself is looking sub-prime." The fact that the show coincided with the onset of this crisis period must surely have prompted some visitors to stay away. But the tough overall economic situation can't be the only explanation for the big drop in the number of visitors attending Glee Petindex. Did the lack of a link-up between the garden halls and pet halls in the exhibition centre play a role? Were exhibitors and visitors unhappy with the new venue in halls 6-8? Were organisational errors made in the run-up to the show? The show's management team must ask itself these questions urgently if a similar fiasco is to be avoided next year. Closing one's eyes to the problems that exist isn't likely to be helpful. It is surprising in this regard that according to the final report of the show, Glee show director Daniel Thurlow was pleased with the show, even though Glee and Petindex suffered a drop in visitor numbers of over 3 000 compared with 2007. This does not augur well for the future. Yours Ralf Majer-Abele