The Visual Impact show held in Sydney last week has been hailed a success by the organisers, with overall visitor numbers up 10 percent despite being significantly down on Saturday.
"The first two [Thursday and Friday] were bumper days, especially the first day which was the biggest opening day in years," says Peter Harper, GM – Trade Shows & Publications for the show’s organisers Visual Connections. "But Saturday's numbers were disappointing and we'll be asking our members whether there's a good case to drop Saturdays because it's not convenient for a lot of people. There has been a trend away from weekend attendances for a while now. What we could do is replace the Saturday with one late night during the week where everyone would get champagne and beer, which is something we've done in the past.
Harper describes the show as a resounding success. "It was a great show and we got a lot of very positive feedback from exhibitors. The numbers were up about ten percent overall and we sold out all of the stands so we were actually turning people away in the final week."
Visitors were treated to a broad showcase of equipment, technologies, media and other solutions covering all aspects of the sign, display and wide format print sector, as well as seminars, workshops and demonstrations across the three-day event. Most of the visitors were locals, with 80 per cent from Sydney and the surrounding region.
“Importantly, for the record number of exhibitors - a total of about 100 for Visual Impact and the co-located Popai marketing show - more than half the attendees were owners, CEOs, MDs or Directors of their companies, proving that Visual Impact is a true ‘decision makers’ show,” says Harper.
Of 83 exhibitors listed in the VI visitor's guide, almost 20 per cent came from Asia - 14 from China and one from South Korea. Harper says the spike in Asian interest came mostly from display companies who were interested in exhibiting in the POPAI show but less interested in signing up for the required membership in the POPAI association. Visual Impact does not require membership to exhibit.
"Most of the Chinese companies were display people and we expect to see more interest from Asia moving forward," says Harper.
“We’re very pleased, and are now focusing on a really positive 2017 program, with Visual Impact Melbourne co-locating with the PacPrint 17 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre from 23-26 May, followed by Visual Impact Sydney, our first at the new ICC Darling Harbour, from October 11-13.”
More information on Visual Impact expos can be found on the Visual Impact website, while the PacPrint 2017 site carries all the information about next year’s VI Melbourne.
Some photos from the show:
