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Should the CGTA Show be Shorter?
I wrote this blog entry sitting at the magazine’s booth in Building Six on the fifth day of the CGTA Fall Gift Show. Despite a trickle of blue retailer badges passing by my position, most of the people who have gone by are wearing industry badges or are exhibitors wandering around the hall.
In the course of walking the show over the last couple of days, I’ve encountered several people--primarily exhibitors but even a retailer—who have questioned the length of the show. The general consensus is that five days is unnecessarily long, particularly when you consider the decrease in the number of attendees and the ever-increasing rise in the costs of transportation and accommodation.
The CGTA puts on a professional, well-organized show, the largest trade show of any kind in Canada, and it should be very proud of what it’s accomplished for its members in terms of the show and as an association. But, it’s time to make the show shorter. The International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago—a mega-show by any standards—only runs three days. The New York Tabletop Market has not only dropped a day but has also moved to a weekday format. Research has shown that very few buyers attend a show for more than two or three days, if they even stay that long. Today, time and money are in short supply. From my vantage point on Day Five, a lot of people were wasting both.
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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 19, 2008 12:48 PM.
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