IFE 2013

21 March 2013, 12:44 pm
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

It only comes round once every two years, but London’s Docklands is the place to be this week for those in the UK food and drink industry

It was only 20 minutes old when the first “how’s the show going for you?” question arose.  Does that question deserve an answer.  We were twenty minutes into a four day show, and even at the end of four days it is too early to make a judgement!  My stock answer is: “Ask me in 6 months’ time!”  Is that rude?  Probably yes, but please think of something more original to say at a trade show! (I knew I should have written this blog before travelling to London!)

It is a difficult call these days to decide whether trade shows are worth the money – a not an insignificant amount of it.  A number of exhibitors today seemed to be asking the same question, despite the show seemingly getting off to quite a good start – although probably not quite as exciting as the Olympic events that were taking place here only 6 months ago.  Think about what other marketing activity could be done with the same amount of money, and what you could be doing with 5 days extra working time.  There is no doubt that the plethora of shows that exist at this time of year dilute each one that was already happening, but some would say there is nothing better than to “press the flesh”.  The only problem with this particular show is that Excel is a ridiculously difficult place to get to unless you are living in Essex, Kent or London – and most of the UK food buyers don’t!

We will await the results of the show in 6 months’ time, but to cast a more positive note, I haven’t encountered such optimism at a food event for quite a while.  It turns out that it is not just us that have had a great start to the year – everyone I talked to today seems to have done as well.  The continued negativity around the horse meat scandal seems to have filled speciality food producers and retailers with a renewed sense that we are onto a good thing here, and generally the population may be realising at long last that spending a higher percentage of their income on food may actually be a good thing to do after all!

Here’s to three more days of vertical living!  DO come and visit us on stand N1140.

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