It’s a great pleasure for Face2Face to have this one to one with you, Ms Kinsella. Please share with us how the Company came to being and achieved its current niche.
Desire to start own company after many years with the industry in marketing, exhibition management roles before becoming General Manager. The success of the company is a combination of passion, drive, core values, good people industry partnerships and a bit of luck. The focus has always been on delivering positive outcomes for all stakeholders. This focus underpinned AEC’s growth.
Delivering exhibitions is demanding and whatever challenges you face the doors open on the published date at the published time. Having people that share the vision, passion and pressure to deliver is an essential ingredient for our success. The exhibition environment does not suit everyone. Whilst the events are great and are the physical representation of all our hard work, the day to day operations of the business are not all that glamorous.
As they say “10% inspiration, 90% perspiration!” The harder you work the “luckier” you get.
Agreed. There is no substitute for hard work! In this decade of existence in the industry, do you think the meaning of trade-fair / event has transformed considerably? What is your take?
Whilst the meaning of a trade fair may not have changed over the years, certainly the expectation from the buyer/visitor has. As we are all aware markets across all industries, and as was clearly demonstrated last year, globally can change quickly and dramatically. The challenge for exhibition organisers is to be across industry changes and trends and to be able to reflect these in the fairs. There is so much more competition for buyers’ attention that organisers today invest far more into the delivery of their events to ensure that buyers are motivated to attend as opposed to simply reproducing a “marketplace”.
Well, you have been hosting many shows in number of verticals pertaining to Fashion viz apparels & accessories like foot wears, eye gears etc. in your view, what all factors influence fashion, and fashion fair thereon?
Fashion is subject to many influences – socio, political, geographical, economic and design. Design often reflects the changes in society, changes in society’s needs, values. On the back of the recession we’ve seen a return to more prudence both in the way businesses conduct themselves and in the way we go about our personal lives. This is reflected in fashion – a return to more conservative, longer lasting, less fads, more value. Good design and investment in good design is essential in differentiating products/services and avoiding simply delivering another commoditised product/service that’s purely price-point driven to the market.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
