The world witnessed long duration of just virtual interaction including industry events/exhibitions all through the pandemic year 2020, but the spark and excitement of personal interactions was amiss and people were enthusiastically looking forward to a renewal of physical meetings and shows. Though the starting of 2021 was also cautious, the situation started opening up in the second half of the year and now many international and national fairs, conferences and even fashion shows have already been held with good participation and visitation. Many fairs, mostly in the West played safe and opted for a hybrid model so as to combat less footfalls and address wider audiences. One thing is very clear – physical shows are now back with a bang and the industry is extremely happy to be seeing fresh developments and old friends!
Exhibitions have always been a major attraction for the industry and one of the most valuable benefits of attending a trade show is the unparalleled networking opportunity. The importance of networking cannot be undermined in the textile and fashion industry, which is all about evolution and changing trends. All major trade shows around the world work hard to maintain their reputation as being trendsetters in the fashion arena. From introducing innovative manufacturing technologies to new products and silhouettes, apparel accessories to fresh textures and fabric mixes, trade shows are the virtual launch pads of new fashion trends and hence, the ideal platform to understand directions and discuss with other industry experts.
Huge visitation at physical shows
The industry has really missed being at exhibitions and sharing ideas while checking out new trends. After an 18-month hiatus, the MAGIC Vegas trade shows returned for in-person events in August 2021. A veteran buyer Nicole Camacho who has been attending MAGIC for the last 10 years shared that the primary reason to visit the show was to touch, see and feel the energy, which she missed so much. This sentiment is shared by almost every person who visited shows recently.
In July 2021, Première Vision launched FASHION RENDEZ-VOUS, the first physical event for the upstream industry since the COVID-19 crisis, in an exceptional location – the Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris. As per official reports from the organisers, more than 2,800 visitors and 200 exhibitors gathered during the two days of the show, attesting to the importance of relaunching business and networking in order to support the recovery of the industry and build the fashion of tomorrow.
Even the ITMA ASIA + CITME 2020, which was delayed for more than 8 months and was eventually held in June 2021 ended on a successful note, attracting a strong local turnout of about 65,000 over 5 days. The combined exhibition brought together 1,237 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions. In an exhibitor survey by the organisers, over 60 per cent of the respondents revealed that they were happy with the quality of visitors while 30 per cent reported that they concluded business deals.
Indian shows also register success
India has already seen a number of industry fairs in the last six months with slow to satisfactory footfalls – Surat International Textile Expo – SITEX; F&A (Bengaluru and Delhi); Textile Fairs India (Delhi); TexIndia (Tirupur); HGH India (Greater Noida); Yarnex (Tirupur); Techtextil (Mumbai); Gartex-Texprocess (New Delhi) are some of the ones that attracted attention and noteworthy footfall.
It is obvious that the industry is now ready to go out and explore business opportunities, but caution is the underlining thought. There is urgency to upgrade factories, search inspiration for product development and finding new partners in the supply chain. Organisers of the recently concluded HGH India 2021, which displays home textiles, home décor, houseware and gifts, a very growing segment from India, claim that the exhibition attracted 21,300 high potential retailers and trade buyers from 460 cities and towns across India. At Gartex, which claims visitation of around 10. 000 visitors, garment manufacturers were keen to see new value added technologies and explore fresh denim trends after a gap of two years.
What is even more encouraging is that many of the fairs saw international visitation and order bookings happened on the spot. The Buying Agents Association (BAA) which had booths at some of the shows including HGH, shared that there were large number of international visitors at the show and they were very keen to find partners to increase sourcing as many have not placed orders for a long time and demand from consumers is increasing by the day. Another interesting point shared by the buying agents was that the hesitation to travel was much reduced and many buyers even praised the massive vaccination drive in India which was largely responsible for creating a ‘safe’ image for buyers when deciding to travel to India for business.
Virtual fairs still have a long way to go
Significantly, virtual fairs have failed to deliver satisfaction as promised and this has prompted many organisers to take the plunge to go physical. In-person events provide value and opportunity that can never completely be replicated by virtual – human connection and spontaneity to react and act that comes from being physically present in the same location.
One of the biggest problems with virtual events is that they do not facilitate the networking capabilities of the event to those who are attending. One of the major agendas for any professional to attend a show or conference is to meet other professionals. However, hosts of virtual events rarely offer to make introductions and do not share a list of who is on the video call or in the webinar for interaction.
As per a global survey by AnyRoad, the leader in Experience Relationship Management (ERM), 33.9 per cent of respondents rated their virtual events as very successful, while the majority of respondents (58.2 per cent) described their online experiences as only somewhat successful. The report analyses that there is much room for improvement for leveraging the full power of online experiences platforms.
The general consensus is that technology is great, but, for now, it still can’t replace the real thing. The reality is that relationship building is much more impactful when two parties meet in person not only to discuss business but also gauge the ‘connect’ that helps the business move forward.
Yet, the virtual platform cannot be fully discarded and moving forward experts believe that the hybrid model will prove to be most successful and garner maximum attendance. As technology improves, the shortcoming will be addressed and organisers of exhibitions/conferences will be able to integrate the advantages of both in-person and virtual events for a powerful and engaging experience.
The year 2022 has a busy event calendar
The line-up of physical activities and shows in 2022 is as per the traditional annual exhibition calendar before the pandemic brought the world to a standstill. MAGIC, Techtextil, Texworld, Apparel sourcing, CISMA to name a few have already announced dates for their shows. In India, dates for popular exhibitions like IIGF, Gartex (Mumbai), Knitshow, F&A, GMMSA, GTE, Apparel Sourcing Week (ASW) have been announced and many more are lined up to be dated soon. However, the growing scare of the new variant of the Covid has off late again created uncertainty and many global organisers have already put-up notices on their websites asking visitors to check for any change, before making travel plans!
