REED GIFT FAIRS
TURNS 50!
Reed Gift Fairs is celebrating 50 years in the gift and homewares industry. We talk to group director―operations, Steve Steenson, about the past, present and future. What inspired the launch of the first gift fair? The gift fairs are a true example of the historical aspects of exhibitions overall, the story of the market traders across the globe became more structured and from market stalls to a business to business offering. The fairs developed and supported a need for retailers to source products locally from wholesalers that had their own creative skill and sourcing networks to meet this demand. My understanding is Kingsley Blunsden and his brother Keith Blunsden worked in advertising and publishing, and produced a trade catalogue of gift and homewares products. Kingsley’s entrepreneurial instincts identified a need to create an opportunity 38 giftguideonline.com.au
for this to become a face to face experience and World Trade Promotions was created as the promoter of the event. The gift fairs grew and were then sold to Thompson World Media in the early 80s and relocated to the Centre Point Tower and other surrounding hotels in Sydney and the Royal Exhibition building in Melbourne. Over 25 years ago Reed Exhibitions acquired Thompson World Media including the gift fairs. How has the gift industry changed in the last 50 years? The industry is always changing and the flow on to the live face to face aspects of trading at the fairs follows these changes. In the early days the wholesalers would identify the products that consumers would
want and offer a ‘show special’. Retailers would buy large quantities at the fair and warehouse the product while wholesalers went sourcing for the next new products that were new and different! These days we see that ‘show specials’ are still highly valued, however, retailers are more cautious in buying large amounts of stock at one time―they spread their spend and purchase month to month online. Wholesalers at the fairs are still very much family businesses, and the children have taken the businesses to new successes and levels that their fathers and mothers could only dream of. At the same time larger businesses are being acquired by multinational companies and private equity groups
How has Reed Gift Fairs adapted to these changes? The team at Reed Gift Fairs spend a lot of time focusing on the global trends. Reed Exhibitions owns and manages Maison&Objet in Paris, China Gift Fairs and many other similar events across the globe. Strategy is set to enable us to adapt to the changes and support the exhibitors. We keep close to our customers so we understand what our customers’ needs are. Reed Exhibitions is a subsidiary of the RELX Group, a multinational information and analytics company. RELX operates in four key business segments in over 40 countries with Reed Exhibitions running over 500 shows for 140,000 exhibitors and 7 million visitors. This network supports the local market leadership of Reed Gift
Fairs where the analytical approach supports the future directions of changes with confidence. Name 3 highlights & 3 challenges over the last 50 years? There have been many highlights of the fairs and challenges that have influenced the way the fairs operate today. Location has always been key in ensuring the retailers find the most convenient location to search for products. The opening of the Sydney Convention Centre in 1988 and the Melbourne Convention centre in 1994 were timely in the growth of the gift industry. Starting with 130 exhibitors in the early 90s to 900 exhibitors in 30,000 square metres of exhibition space over 10 years. The fairs became bright and colourful and had a