Give us a bit of a background on the Rand Show?
The important thing to bear in mind is the Rand Show is part of South African heritage and began at the Old Wanderers cricket ground in November 1894. The exhibition is one of the largest consumer shows outside of the United States and last year attracted over 200 000 feet across medium and upper LSM’ s. The expo has gone through various ownership changes as well as a variety of shifts in operations and structure.
It is again being overhauled, why?
We all know that everything is changing at a rate of knots and every company providing a customer experience will have to evolve and provide uniqueness. There are however very few smaller specialised exhibitions that are completely family friendly, which the Rand Show has always been. Now we are overhauling the variety of exhibitors by providing new initiatives to give the premium players a comfortable environment to engage with all our footfall.
You have a strong focus on design, why?
We are looking at all the various categories and continually improving these but have had many requests from visitors for more of a focus on design and this year hall 6 is what we have named the Design Pavilion. There are a lot of décor and design expos out there but many have had a reduction in footfall over recent years. These events are not always enticing for the man of the house or the entire family to attend. This is where the Rand Show is very different and why it has received the tag line“ Johannesburg’ s biggest day out” and provides unique experience for everyone of every age.
If there are that many feet coming through the gates sales for vendors must be fantastic?
If the vendors have good business disciplines the sales and leads can keep a company busy for a year. It is all based on scale and we find many exhibitors taking far bigger exhibition stands to what they would take at other expos. Times are tough for everyone and many expos do not allow exhibitors to sell directly off their stands. The Rand Show is different and even vendors in the Design Pavilion will be able to sell off their stands. This is a great platform to both launch new products, take orders and move stock from December.
What is Johannesburg Design Week, which is launching at the Rand Show?
This is a first for Johannesburg and what we believe to be a much needed initiative that we want to see grow to such an extent that it becomes a destination for international visitors as well. The event is initially aimed as a platform to share information on design to a variety of different sectors. We plan to have events for the trade and industry including design students and professional designers and architects. Other programs will be held by tertiary institutions to educate school leavers on the possibilities of design. We believe that design in SA has become very elitist and we plan to have a host of programs to educate and empower the general public. The Maker Movement will also be strongly represented and we aim to get the youth heavily involved with this worldwide phenomenon.
Rand Show office: Tel:( 011) 494 – 3280 / 494 – 2894 Fax:( 011) 494 – 0863 info @ randshow. co. za www. randshow. co. za @ Rand _ Show www. facebook. com / randshow