Early indications are that this will be a very popular new addition to the show website as it allows existing and potential exhibitors not just the chance to see the calibre of the visitors that will be attending the show at the click of a mouse button but also to learn something about them and in particular what they are keen to see and lean about at this long awaited new event.

This is a first – we are not aware of any event having run a feature like this before and we feel that it is a typical example of the fresh and innovative approach our team are taking to the task of making World of Paving and it’s partner The Hard Landscaping Show, the really great shows that the industry has always wanted and truly deserves.

World of Paving and The Hard Landscaping Show are specialist shows aimed specifically at Designers, Architects and installation professionals and retailers of these products and these are the people that will be attending our shows.

They are new shows so they cannot have yet had a chance to work for you so whether you are a potential exhibitor or potential visitor, please don’t tar them with the same brush as the old format generic events, come along and help us make them unmissable industry events.

The one that a lot of kids love and a lot of adults hate and that has lead to hate mail from the educational establishment because of the catchphrase “simples” allegedly corrupting the English language?

Well, for those of us who may have thought it was a lot of fuss about nothing, news that the marketshare of comparethemarket.com has increased by 76% and the traffic to their website by 83% will come as a bit of a shock.

But not half as much of a shock as it’s come to their competitors such as moneysupermarket.com, whose campaign that started in June featuring Peter Jones from Dragons Den, has been completely trounced.

OK, it can be argued that recession or not people still need to insure their cars so this is a straight fight for share of a pie that remains pretty much intact from before the chaps in the red braces lost all of our money – yes, this can be argued but to do so, in our view, would be to miss the main points.

The first one is that Google and other search engines are not the be all and end all in driving traffic to your website.

The second is that it’s possible to increase your sales in a recession but this has to be at the expense of your competitors – like the meerkat, you have to get out there and compete even harder and this means by spending money on advertising which includes shows.

Simples!

On the one hand it’s understandable – these are the toughest times in living memory (although  a few of us, somewhat more stricken in years, can recall a couple of previous recessions) and yet on the other it’s odd – surely the time to advertise and promote sales is when they are hardest to achieve?

And yet that seems not to be the view of the financial people – we often hear that it would be “inappropriate” to spend money on sales promotion when workers are being laid off or being put on reduced shifts.

Why should this be? If I was one of those workers being laid off due to excessive stock held of unsold product, I would want the company to make every effort to sell them – surely this would be the fastest route to getting my job back?

As a society we accept and live with the economic model of continuous growth being required as a sign of a healthy economy yet when that growth stalls we seem almost paralysed, the tap is either on or off.

We’ve heard the argument advanced – “There’s no business out there so why advertise?” – we see this as a crazy oversimplification.

There is business out there – less of it sure, and at worse terms without a doubt, but it’s there and the only way to grow your business in such circumstances is to take market share away from your competitors.

Will you be able to do this by sacking the sales force and freezing the show and ad budgets?

Biased we may be but somehow we doubt it, the only people that believe in the phrase “these products sell themselves” are people who no experience of selling.

This new event that will run alongside World of Paving, has already created a lot of interest and enquiries for stand space are already being received as well as stand space already being reserved by top industry names including Terram, the leading geotextile manufacturer.

Clearly local authorities represent a very important part of the specification market for paving so we feel sure that all of our exhibitors will welcome the chance to put their latest and best products in front of this type of visitor.

This is why we are so pleased that, with the latest sign-ups to the show, we are approaching 25% space sold and this less than 4 months after launch.

And what sign-ups they are – Optimas, the German company that is one of the World market leaders in the manufacture of paving laying equipment, Lonstone, the long established UK based pre-cast paving manufacturer and Boddingtons, the Maldon, Essex based manufacturer of a wide range of extruded thermoplastic products including the well known GrassProtecta and TurfProtecta brands that are exported Worldwide.

We already have a top line up of companies signed up for the show and across a broad range of products – pre-cast paving, drainage, grass reinforcement, paving installation machines, diamond cutting and drilling, resin bonded aggregate systems, natural stone paving, specialist sealants and mortars – so we are well on target to being able to support our claim that there will be something for everyone in the paving industry at World of Paving 2010.