Fun at the FFAIR
Adam Jones talks to EN ’ s Joe Gallop about his new business : FFAIR
What is your background in events ?
I joined the event industry in 2004 , and started my own business , Showplans , in 2009 which grew to be a great success and ultimately got acquired by Freeman in 2016 . I joined Freeman as part of the acquisition , heading up their digital team in EMEA and growing the Showplans , rebranded Blueprint product in the US market .
Can you explain what FFAIR does ?
FFAIR ( pronounced ‘ fair ’) offers two organiser platforms : online exhibitor manual , Taskd , and supplier management and exhibitor webstore , Vendr . Taskd is a simple yet powerful online exhibition manual . You can build complex tasks in a matter of minutes and fully customise them to your different types of exhibitors . Vendr is an Amazon-style marketplace that brings all your suppliers ’ products and service into one user-friendly webstore .
We provide your exhibitors with the platform to buy from multiple suppliers in one simple transaction . Streamlining order management and cash flow for your suppliers , offering your exhibitors a central hub for all the equipment , utilities and services they need , while giving you complete transparency of all orders .
Why did you launch a business during the pandemic , it must have been stressful ?
FFAIR was re-launched , because it was originally launched pre-pandemic with one product , which was the Amazon-style shopping experience where exhibitors can buy from multiple suppliers in one transaction . We launched an additional product during the pandemic which is an online exhibitor manual . I ’ ve spent a lot of time in the industry , and I understand the processes of both exhibiting and running events .
I saw an opportunity to add a complimentary product to the FFAIR product suite that really made it easy for exhibitors . It ’ s quite common for businesses to grow out of crises . The last business I ran was launched in the middle of a financial crisis and it creates opportunity . Some businesses struggle and fail , but others grow . But really , it ’ s become more important for exhibitors to have a better experience than they did before . I think it was an expectation that there would be marketing budgets set aside for events , and the industry succeeded rather lazily almost . But now that a lot of companies have been exposed to different marketing channels , technology is more advanced and the experience is much simpler , so for live events we must do a bit better and provide an easier way for exhibitors to take part and we can ’ t expect them to accept poor processes , dated technology or no technology at all .
So , the opportunity was there to start something exciting that would make exhibitors ’ experiences much simpler .
In such uncertain times , has it ever been more important to make exhibiting as simple and beneficial as possible ?
For the exhibitor it is a matter of simplifying the process as much as possible . For the organiser – again
50 — June