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40 years of The Showman's Show with Johnny Lance · Event Industry News Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello everybody and welcome along to the Event Industry News podcast with me, James Dixon,
• 0:11
  wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon or evening, whenever or wherever you tune
• 0:15
  into today's podcast from. The Event Industry News podcast is brought to you by Present
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  Communications. And into today's episode. I'm very excited about today's episode because
• 0:48
  I get a chance to talk to somebody who I have chatted to and had the pleasure of sort of
• 0:52
  meeting always kind of in fleeting five or 10 minute bursts for about the last 15 years
• 0:59
  or so. But as somebody who is long overdue a chat on the podcast to talk about what they
• 1:07
  do and what they do and have done in the industry for many, many years. I'm delighted genuinely
• 1:12
  to say that my guest today is Jonny Lance from The Showman's Show. Jonny, a very warm
• 1:17
  welcome for the first time to the podcast.
• 1:19
  Hello, James. It's lovely to see you and many thanks for having me here.
• 1:23
  No, absolute pleasure. Loads of stuff to talk about today. Genuinely can't believe this is
• 1:28
  the first time that we've had you on the podcast to talk about The Showman's Show. My experience
• 1:35
  of it goes back pretty much equally to the time that I've been a freelancer in the events
• 1:41
  industry. I accidentally became self-employed in 2010, in September 2010. And in October 2010,
• 1:50
  I attended my first ever Showman's Show alongside my good friend Paul Allatt from Event Industry
• 1:56
  News. And it's actually, I'm sort of shivering to say this, been several years since I've actually
• 2:04
  been back there. I was there for several years at the start of my career. And then as luckily
• 2:08
  as the calendar fills up, you know, I've always been busy at that time here, which is why perhaps,
• 2:13
  you know, I've never maybe had a chance to talk to you properly about the show and get you on
• 2:17
  the podcast. But, you know, it's great to have you here. For those who don't know about the show,
• 2:22
  tell us a little bit about the show, what it is, how it started. Let's start at the beginning.
• 2:26
  Of course. Well, The Showman's Show is a trade show and exhibition for the outdoor and special
• 2:33
  event industry. It's a family business. It was set up by my father and my mother back in 1984.
• 2:42
  And it was actually born out of a directory that they were producing called The Showman's Directory,
• 2:48
  which was like a Yellow Pages for event suppliers, which they, you know, they worked on since the
• 2:55
  1960s. And it was basically an idea that was formed in a pub with my dad and his best friend
• 3:04
  who worked on the event scene. And they basically said, well, let's bring this printed directory
• 3:10
  to life. Let's get all these contractors and services in a field. Let's get them meeting and
• 3:15
  talking and engaging with the industry. And that's when The Showman's Directory Comes to Life was
• 3:23
  born. So The Showman's Show hasn't always been called The Showman's Show. It was originally
• 3:26
  called The Showman's Directory Comes to Life. Not a particularly catchy name. So it was eventually
• 3:34
  The Showman's Show. But that's how it came about. Fascinating to hear it. You know, as many of the
• 3:40
  best ideas, you know, formed in pubs over a pint with somebody. But when you, I guess, when you
• 3:46
  think back to it, it seems bleeding obvious, doesn't it? You had this directory for years,
• 3:53
  with the supplier lists in there. Of course, it's for outdoor event suppliers. So why not bring them
• 3:58
  together to deliver an outdoor event celebrating that outdoor industry and give people a chance
• 4:04
  to meet these people and bring them off the page and into real life? I think that's exactly it.
• 4:09
  You know, bear in mind, this was the days before the internet was even invented. So it's like,
• 4:13
  where do people kind of meet? How do they engage? You know, apart from the kind of the events
• 4:18
  themselves are happening around the country at any one time, you know, there wasn't a focal point.
• 4:23
  So that's how it was born. And yeah, we pride ourselves on being the first, the original and
• 4:31
  most comprehensive exhibition for the outdoor event industry. And for any event, you know,
• 4:37
  longevity is a great sort of design. There's many an event that has come and gone over the years,
• 4:44
  serving all manner of purposes, whether it be, you know, a music event or a B2B trade show.
• 4:51
  To still be here, you know, 1984, to still be here in 2026, you know, still a relatively early
• 4:59
  point in the calendar year, looking ahead to the show that takes place traditionally always in
• 5:03
  October. It must make you very proud to still be here and still be running something that is
• 5:09
  hugely successful, but is a real fixture on the events calendar.
• 5:13
  It is, actually. Yeah, it is. When you put it like that, it is quite, yeah, it is quite
• 5:18
  significant. I mean, we, yeah, like I said, it's been a family business ever since it was set up
• 5:24
  in 1984. And now me and my brother run it. And so, you know, my parents have very kindly passed
• 5:29
  this on to the next generation. And yeah, to look back at what's happened, how it's,
• 5:37
  yeah, the many years it's been going, I mean, it's survived, God knows how many recessions,
• 5:42
  wars and COVID, and we're still here. So it's still serving a purpose.
• 5:48
  I guess in one respect, and I was doing a bit of thinking about this and, you know,
• 5:53
  forgive me if it gets too deep and everything, but, you know, despite the obvious changes in
• 5:59
  life, you know, technology and communications and the way we communicate, the idea of an outdoor
• 6:04
  event, you know, a stage, some catering, so people can eat, you know, a bar or somewhere where they
• 6:11
  can get refreshments, some entertainment on that stage, you know, a fence somewhere for people to
• 6:17
  camp in a field, you know, the fundamentals of an outdoor event, despite the evolution of technology
• 6:25
  in many respects haven't changed much, have they? What we see today at a music festival, for
• 6:30
  example, the basics and the fundamentals are still very much what we would see, you know, Woodstock
• 6:36
  in 1969. So I guess there's an interesting sort of, you know, paradox there when it comes to
• 6:41
  outdoor events. Yes, no, no, you're absolutely right. I mean, I mean, obviously, events are
• 6:47
  temporary things. So it's hard for them to kind of change, you know, significantly in that time,
• 6:52
  because you're working on a, on a yearly, you know, a yearly basis. So, you know, but yeah,
• 6:59
  I mean, I mean, the core things for an outdoor event, a kind of infrastructure, you know, you've
• 7:04
  got to, you've got to lay it down, you've got to build these cities, you've got to build these towns.
• 7:09
  And, yeah, I mean, and yeah, just to get, you know, get people in a field and just to have a
• 7:15
  great time. Do you think that one of the historic strengths of the event and of the brand has been
• 7:22
  that it presents itself in exactly the way that the exhibitors are coming to exhibit their trade
• 7:32
  there do, i.e. it is a very much an outdoor event. It's at Newbury Showgrounds. So, you know,
• 7:37
  the vast majority of your event is outside. Therefore, you are effectively dealing with
• 7:42
  the same pitfalls and the same planning and organisational issues as the visitors who are
• 7:50
  coming to your event, but also for the exhibitors who are there. Does that always sort of give you
• 7:54
  a sort of a natural synergy with the people that you're serving? Well, absolutely. I mean, we can,
• 7:59
  yeah, basically, yeah, we have the same challenges as any other outdoor event, whether that be
• 8:05
  Glastonbury or Wimbledon or what have you, you know, we suffer the weather, we suffer all sorts.
• 8:11
  So, it's, you know, so we're kind of very much in the same boat. And we also, being at Newbury
• 8:18
  Showground, we build the show from scratch. So, we're laying down the infrastructure, we're putting
• 8:23
  up the tents, we're putting up, you know, we're plumbing in the water, we're laying the power
• 8:28
  cables. So, it's a blank canvas. So, there's a lot of shared trials and tribulations with other,
• 8:35
  you know, public outdoor events. Has it always been at Newbury Showground?
• 8:42
  No, it was originally at Newark Showground. It was there for two years, and then it kind of moved
• 8:49
  from Newark to, you know, hovered between the two, and then we stuck at Newbury. And we just
• 8:56
  built a good relationship with the venue there. And as I mentioned, it's a blank canvas. So,
• 9:03
  we're kind of free to do what we want to do. And we pass that freedom on to our activities. So,
• 9:08
  they're free to do what they want to do. And we want to encourage them to really use the space
• 9:12
  and the platform to their best ability. So, if they want to put up a stage, you know, go nuts,
• 9:18
  go for it. If they want to put up a tent or have a party or whatever, you know, we're,
• 9:25
  you know, we encourage them to do so. So, we've got that freedom for them to do that.
• 9:28
  Yeah. And when it comes to showcasing your business, you know, at a trade show, you know,
• 9:33
  not there's anything wrong with, you know, with the big indoor, you know, trade show venues that
• 9:39
  we've got in the country, but there are constraints that come with that. You know, space is very
• 9:43
  expensive, you know, and when you do stuff indoors and under a roof and dealing with power, it
• 9:51
  becomes sort of a costly thing to do. And to, I guess, showcase what your exhibitors do day to day,
• 10:01
  it needs to be in a setting like that. And I would imagine that there's a huge amount of
• 10:06
  creativity that they're afforded by coming to your show that maybe, you know, with other sort
• 10:10
  of indoor related shows that they're not quite afforded that same level of flexibility and
• 10:15
  creativity, which is what drives the industry. Yeah, no, you're right. And then, yeah, basically,
• 10:21
  I mean, if you're coming to book a stage, you know, there's no better way than actually standing
• 10:24
  on the stage yourself. Or if you're going to go and buy a tent or a new, you know, structure, you
• 10:29
  know, to actually see the structure, to walk into the structure before you, you know, put your money
• 10:34
  down. It's great to be able to do that. And yeah, over the years, the exhibitors have been
• 10:42
  taking full advantage of that. And they really do go to town with making some great stages and,
• 10:48
  you know, sorry, stands. And it's, you know, it's good.
• 10:53
  What over the years that you've been involved, and dare I say, you know, maybe, maybe you can't
• 11:00
  quite remember, you know, the 1984, the 1985, or the full exhibitor list. But in terms of how the
• 11:09
  actual visitors have evolved over time, it certainly strikes me in in sort of the years
• 11:16
  that I've worked in the industry, since 2010, that there's more and more events than there have
• 11:23
  ever been more and more outdoor events, particularly smaller ones, you know,
• 11:28
  one or two day pop up events run by local organisations, particularly.
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  Has that shaped at all, the exhibitors that come there or the audience that says how is the sort
• 11:40
  of the change in the industry shifted and manifested itself within the shows? It's something
• 11:46
  you've noticed? Yes, I wouldn't say, yeah, so it's, the show is kind of a reflection of the
• 11:53
  industry, if you know what I mean. So it's, it will kind of reflect what's going on, or what has been
• 11:58
  going on, what's changed. And I mean, when it first started, the show was, you know, there weren't many
• 12:04
  outdoor events, you know, the show was actually formed from an agricultural world, agricultural
• 12:09
  and county show world, that's where my father worked, you know. So it had a bias towards
• 12:15
  that. And back in the early 1980s, there weren't many music festivals or
• 12:20
  food festivals around, you know, there was obviously probably a handful of the big boys that,
• 12:25
  you know, still exist. And so in the last 40 years, the outdoor event industry and live event
• 12:31
  industry generally has just exploded. I mean, yeah, it's just grown massively from a handful
• 12:38
  of events to hundreds of festivals, you know, from music to food, to everything. So sporting events,
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  you know, mass participation events. When we reference your venues, just go back to what
• 12:51
  you said about the event, you know, starting in Newark, and then, you know, it's now, you know,
• 12:56
  it's home, it's very much been in Newbury for a number of years now. They are agricultural
• 13:02
  showgrounds, aren't they? You know, that's what they fundamentally are, you know, and I live up
• 13:05
  in Yorkshire. So I've been to the Yorkshire show many times, that there's several sort of market
• 13:10
  towns in the Peak District, you know, not far from where I am, they all have their sort of
• 13:15
  agricultural shows on a big showground. And it really was, if we go back sort of 40-50 years,
• 13:22
  the agricultural shows that took place in counties during those sort of summer months,
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  really were the big outdoor events of the time, weren't they? Absolutely, you know, they attract
• 13:31
  you know, the wider community, you know, they had all sorts of arena entertainment and all sorts
• 13:36
  going on there. But yeah, so they were definitely, you know, an important role to, you know, they had
• 13:42
  an important place in the event industry, you know, in the early days. And, you know, people
• 13:47
  think that they struggle, you know, it's a minefield getting 10,000 people into a music
• 13:51
  festival, you try getting 10,000 cattle, you know, 40 herds of sheep in and out of a field.
• 13:58
  Yeah, exactly.
• 14:00
  There's the challenges that nobody's talking about.
• 14:05
  But again, you know, I talk about infrastructure, you know, and, you know, regardless of what,
• 14:10
  I guess, the content, the program content is of the event, you know, the fundamentals remain the
• 14:15
  same, don't they? You're doing an agricultural show, you've got to get vehicles in what happens
• 14:19
  if it's wet, you know, you're going to need somewhere for people to have cover. And,
• 14:23
  you know, people are probably going to get hungry in two days stood in a field, you know,
• 14:27
  showcasing their cattle, so you've got to feed them.
• 14:30
  Yeah, you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. There's a lot of similarities.
• 14:34
  Yeah, it's interesting how it has evolved. And I mentioned technology and sort of shaping its part,
• 14:40
  you know, in there, you know, do you see, has that shifted as well, the way that technology
• 14:47
  plays a role within the events industry? Has that also manifested itself within the
• 14:53
  exhibitors and the people that you're seeing, actually visiting the showman show and the sort
• 14:57
  of the elements that are now used within the design? Is it not just the sort of stage and
• 15:01
  that sort of that big infrastructure that we think about? Is it those sort of preparation
• 15:04
  and the organizational elements as well that you see?
• 15:07
  Absolutely, yeah. Well, although the focus of the show, I mean, again, there's a large focus on the
• 15:13
  infrastructure, so that an infrastructure providers, but we do have technology providers
• 15:18
  as well. So they'll, you know, anyone running a high business will have crew, they'll have gear,
• 15:22
  they'll have all sorts and they need to manage that. So now we see a lot of software companies,
• 15:28
  you know, specializing in project management, you know, and business management, so they can
• 15:33
  manage their staff and their assets. And then obviously, you know, the way that the kind of
• 15:39
  entertainments change, we get a lot of drone providers, drone show providers, that's,
• 15:45
  that's kind of, you know, relatively, I say relatively new, they've been around for a while,
• 15:48
  but that's, but there's, you know, been a massive uplift in that that kind of that kind of tech.
• 15:55
  Yeah, absolutely. The when I was scrolling through the website this morning, just sort of
• 15:59
  doing the very vague prep and bits and pieces that I do before a podcast recording, I was reading
• 16:05
  through the sustainability element of your website, which is a topic that has played a huge
• 16:12
  part of conversations within the industry now, but for several years, I noticed that you've
• 16:16
  dedicated quite a big chunk of your own event website to talking about sustainability initiatives
• 16:23
  that as organizers you take, you think it's clearly something that, you know, as an organization
• 16:29
  serving the industry, you need to lead on, I presume?
• 16:33
  Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Well, sustainability is something that's close to our hearts. Anyway,
• 16:38
  you know, we're kind of country boys born and bred. So we, you know, we have, you know, we've
• 16:43
  grown up in the countryside, basically, and, and, and enjoy enjoy the natural environment.
• 16:48
  But, but we started our sustainability journey, probably in earnest, back in 2014. But previous
• 16:56
  to that, we were doing all my, you know, my father was doing all the bits and bobs that we
• 17:00
  need to do the recycling and the sorting and all that. But obviously, sustainability became a bit
• 17:06
  of a buzzword. And I've lost my train of thought. But yeah, but yeah, it is, it is important to us.
• 17:14
  And we feel as as an industry event, that's something we're in a position to be able to kind
• 17:18
  of influence or suggest recommend the industry and how it operates. And obviously, being an
• 17:27
  outdoor event, you know, we are we have an impact, and we recognize that and we want to address it.
• 17:32
  And that's what we've been doing for the last 12 years. And I'm a great believer, it also makes
• 17:39
  good financial sense to be, be more efficient, which can then obviously, you know, be more
• 17:45
  sustainable. And, yeah, what I like is, as well as that, you know, not to not to sort of blow,
• 17:52
  blow smoke, but you're backing this up. Again, I've referenced the website, because I saw it,
• 17:57
  and you said buzzword and a lot of events, you know, sustainability, they will agree is something
• 18:04
  they need to address. But it has become a bit of a buzzword. There's an argument to say that for
• 18:09
  some events, it is a bit of a tick box exercise, you know, they feel that they have to do it,
• 18:13
  because if they don't, they will be looked upon, you know, less favorably by by consumers,
• 18:18
  particularly, but what I like on your website is it you're not just said, you know, we aim to do
• 18:22
  sustainable stuff and practice, there's actually stuff on it, facts, figures, things to back it up
• 18:28
  50% of the toilets on site are compost loose, we've reduced the event towards consumption by
• 18:32
  more than half from 333 cubic litres in 2015 to 120 in 2024. You know that you're actually clearly
• 18:41
  taking that to, you know, monitoring of this. Do you know what, yeah, it's something that we've
• 18:46
  actually we created numbers is something that we only recently started doing. I think it's,
• 18:53
  again, it's to kind of recognize the work that we've done, because I talk about sustainability
• 18:58
  in this show quite a bit with, you know, people in the industry, and remember someone saying,
• 19:02
  oh, you've got a good grasp of the numbers, you know, what's going on? And it's like, well,
• 19:06
  yeah. And so we're basically putting out there to say, well, actually, it is achievable, you know,
• 19:11
  I think we managed to save like 50% of the diesel when we were using diesel back in
• 19:17
  2014. But by just a simple review of the generator sizes that we're using at the show,
• 19:27
  and what we're powering, and just a simple review managed to cut our fuel bill by 50% the following
• 19:32
  year. So it was just a simple, we didn't change any tech or anything. We just said, we just had
• 19:37
  the supplier say, look, you know, are we overpowering this? You know, are we? And they
• 19:41
  basically said, yes, you know, we can halve this. And, yeah, and, and, and in some respects, you
• 19:47
  know, you can you can understand that being the case, because, you know, like any outdoor event,
• 19:52
  you don't want stuff to fall over, because you haven't given people enough juice to do what they
• 19:56
  need to do. So there is always a tendency in events as a whole is to over egg things, redundancy,
• 20:03
  redundancy for the redundant, and the redundant for that. But, you know, a simple reviews now,
• 20:09
  and again, the way that equipment what, what requires power, you know, an outdoor events,
• 20:14
  you know, lights, sound, all that obvious stuff. And again, when we go back to the technology
• 20:19
  discussion, a lot of that now uses significantly less power. If you look at the amplification that
• 20:25
  drives big sound systems, lighting fixtures now, you know, predominantly, if not all LED,
• 20:31
  rather than old fashioned warm bulbs. And, you know, when you look at how that element of things,
• 20:36
  I guess, has evolved, naturally, our power consumption is going to come down. So it is
• 20:40
  something that organisers can address, you know, fairly regularly, I would, I would have thought
• 20:44
  that's the case. I think this is it's, it's, you know, when approaching sustainability is to kind
• 20:50
  of try and do something every year, don't try and change it all at once, because you will set
• 20:55
  yourself up for failure. But, but it's to, you know, pick an area, and really, really study it.
• 21:03
  And over the years, I mean, we started out with with waste, waste being an issue, because it's,
• 21:07
  it's, it's obvious, it's visual, and you can see it and, and, you know, outdoor events have a bad
• 21:14
  rep with, you know, dirty campsites and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But so that was our kind of first
• 21:21
  of our first kind of target, but then it kind of quickly moved on to power and power generation,
• 21:26
  and continues to be power generation, to be honest, right now. So we're always looking at
• 21:30
  ways we can be more efficient or power event a bit more, you know, smoothly, or looking at the
• 21:35
  new tech that's coming in and trialing things out. And last year, we worked with grid fairies,
• 21:43
  which is, it's kind of part of ecotricity, the power provider, utilities company.
• 21:51
  And we use their massive megawatt batteries to power our indoor exhibition hall. And that was
• 21:57
  the first time that we'd powered the exhibition hall by battery. And, and it was it was great. I
• 22:03
  mean, these, these things were massive, you know, and it's, these batteries are massive. And so
• 22:09
  last year, there was all it was run off, run off solar power, basically.
• 22:12
  Yes, absolutely. Again, I'm just sort of referencing the, the sort of the indoor
• 22:20
  trade shows that take place. I'm pretty confident in saying that that's not something that you could
• 22:26
  actually look to deliver in the indoor events because of the regulations regarding, you know,
• 22:31
  powering things of batteries and lithium ion and things like that. So, again, going back to sort of
• 22:36
  the flexibility that you've got and the ability to deliver stuff that actually, in the outdoor
• 22:41
  world, you need to showcase what a great sort of position that you're in, that you can actually
• 22:45
  make the decision to go down that route. No, no, you're absolutely right. And yeah,
• 22:50
  and that's what's great. You know, people come to us with an idea. I'm going to put that out
• 22:53
  there now. You know, if anybody's got an idea, a new product they want to try, you know, get in
• 22:57
  touch because that's the nature of the show. We want, want it to be used by the industry to,
• 23:03
  to try things out, you know, give it a go or, you know, demonstrate stuff. It's,
• 23:07
  yeah, it's a great privilege to be in, that's for sure. How does the, the venue themselves,
• 23:13
  what are their sort of thoughts and views on the event? Do they come along? Do they learn
• 23:18
  stuff about other events that they're hosting within their venue by coming to your event?
• 23:23
  They do, yeah. I mean, they're obviously part of the event and they, I mean, they're great to work
• 23:28
  with in the sense that they do kind of leave us alone and they'll help us when we need,
• 23:32
  um, which is great, but they, but they do come along to the event and, um, and they're, they're
• 23:37
  shopping around, they're picking up supplies for their own, for their own show that they have on
• 23:41
  the venue as, as well as, um, yeah, picking up tips to improve the venue. What, um, you mentioned
• 23:48
  every year small steps on the sustainability side of things, but, you know, wider to that,
• 23:53
  are you always looking, you know, to, to, to evolve the show? Obviously you will always
• 23:57
  want new exhibitors and people to come on board, but in terms of, uh, changes year to year, has it
• 24:03
  been a slow but steady evolution every year? So what, what, what are you looking forward to for
• 24:08
  this year? Yeah, it has, it has been, uh, it is a steady, steady evolution. Um, I mean, our focus
• 24:15
  is very much to kind of maintain the show. It's not necessarily to grow it, but we understand that
• 24:19
  things need to evolve, um, um, and, you know, to keep, uh, relevant and maintained. Um, but also
• 24:26
  there's new, new bits and bobs out there, bits of tech and bits of software and services that we
• 24:31
  could use ourselves. Uh, I mean, one, uh, one really useful bit of the kit that we used, that
• 24:37
  we've been using for a couple of years now is our, our new exhibitor portal from which you'll, you'll
• 24:42
  know, uh, Adam from FAIR. Um, and that, that has, has really revolution, revolutionized us internally,
• 24:50
  you know, by, you know, communicating how we communicate with our exhibitors and how we get
• 24:53
  information from our exhibitors. Um, and, uh, just how it's really helped us kind of provide
• 24:59
  a better service for them as well as get, get all the relevant information for us. Um, so we're
• 25:04
  always kind of looking at bits and bobs like that. Uh, you know, we, we keep our ears, ears to the
• 25:09
  ground, uh, for, for new ideas and, and, and, you know, how we can improve ourselves. Now we're a
• 25:14
  small team. There's only three of us that work in the office. So anything like that, that helps us,
• 25:18
  you know, is, is great. We're up for that. Yeah. I'm, I'm always staggered by, by these events,
• 25:25
  you know, that, that when you find out, oh, there's only three or four people behind the
• 25:28
  scenes, crikey, what's their email inbox like, you know, what is their job list?
• 25:36
  This is it. You have to kind of, we have to really kind of switch between what Bo would do,
• 25:40
  you know, one day I might be doing sales, next minute you're kind of project management,
• 25:43
  next minute is business development, you know, next minute it's things like this.
• 25:47
  So, but you know, I would always argue that gives you a great end to end understanding,
• 25:51
  you know, if you're as involved in the event as you, obviously you and the family obviously is,
• 25:58
  and inevitably that's going to give you, you know, better communication, better relationship
• 26:04
  with your exhibitors and your visitors. If you really understand the end to end, I'm sure,
• 26:08
  I'm certain that that reflects. It does. And we do pride ourselves on that, you know,
• 26:13
  from the initial phone call we might get from an exhibitor wanting to book space,
• 26:17
  now they don't know anything about us. They'll speak to one of three of us, and that's who
• 26:23
  they'll be dealing with right through to the end, until they leave the show, you know. So,
• 26:28
  and because it's us, it's a family business, we've got skin in the game, you know, we want to provide
• 26:32
  the best friendly service as possible, because it's our heads that will roll. We don't have
• 26:40
  anyone up the ladder that we can blame, it's us that has, you know, it's us who takes all the,
• 26:46
  yeah, all the credit and the blame. All the credit and the blame, yeah, in equal measure.
• 26:51
  In measure, absolutely. In equal measure sometimes. Dare I ask, and I'm sure you've
• 26:55
  been asked this, you know, many times before about, you know, the possibility of doing,
• 27:01
  you know, is it going to remain just, you know, an annual event, you know, once a year you'll do
• 27:05
  this, is that, has there ever been scope or discussion of doing something, even on a smaller
• 27:10
  basis at other times of the year, to maybe sort of keep things, you know, in people's minds, you know,
• 27:16
  marketeers will tell us about this sort of year-round engagement that you've now got to
• 27:19
  have with your audiences. What are the plans very much to keep it as that big annual event?
• 27:25
  It is, yeah, we talk about this, well actually we say, never say never, because we talk about
• 27:31
  this on a regular basis, because things change, demand changes, and we did, we have trialed
• 27:37
  other events, we, other showman's show, we held one up in, up north for two years, we held one
• 27:44
  in Northern Ireland for two years, and both of those, you know, they washed their faces,
• 27:51
  what have you, but they weren't really doing, they weren't, they didn't really take off, because
• 27:55
  everyone was coming down to the main event, you know, to the main show, and the way that we
• 28:01
  engage with our audience all year round, is that we have monthly newsletters, basically, and we
• 28:08
  and we just basically invite our exhibitors to take advantage of that, you know,
• 28:12
  submit news, you know, submit any product releases, or what they're doing throughout the year,
• 28:16
  that we can just kind of, just trickle feed, you know, feed our audience until things ramp up
• 28:21
  for October, but, I mean, and there are also, kind of, lots of other industry events out there,
• 28:27
  so it's, you know, it's quite crowded in this, in a sense, you know, there's a lot going on,
• 28:32
  basically, and I guess, in many respects, that, sort of, to answer my own question,
• 28:38
  it's in October, it's a great time of year to do it, isn't it? It's at the end of the,
• 28:44
  you know, the traditional British summer event season, so people have got stuff to reflect on,
• 28:50
  they've got stuff to celebrate, they're maybe winding down a little bit, the diaries are a
• 28:54
  little bit lighter than they are in May, June, July, August, September, so from a calendar point
• 28:59
  of view, again, to answer my own question, I guess, that having, sort of, that October period sewn up
• 29:04
  for your event is a great period of time to have. It is, yeah, and it will always be October, you know,
• 29:10
  a lot of people always say, why didn't you make it spring, and it's like, well, spring's too late,
• 29:13
  you know, the weather will be better, but everyone will be busy, you know, yeah,
• 29:18
  they'll be booked, yeah, exactly, they'll be booked, yeah, exactly, so we won't have an event,
• 29:23
  but with October, it's, yeah, it's, it falls after a busy season, so hopefully the people have had a
• 29:30
  good year, they're feeling optimistic, and they are then already thinking about the following
• 29:34
  year, so it's a perfect time for them to, for the industry to meet, to reflect, and start booking
• 29:42
  for next year. How, one sort of final thing that I really wanted to ask today is, is how you feel
• 29:49
  about the fact that the event seemingly has become a real, sort of, social fixture on people's
• 29:55
  calendars who work in the industry, it's not just a chance for them to come and do business, and
• 30:00
  research, and explore suppliers and companies, but, you know, from my recollection, and my
• 30:05
  understanding, and what I've witnessed, is that people really do see it as a social thing, there's
• 30:11
  a lot of people laughing, and joking, and walking around, there's a, there seems to be a lot of
• 30:16
  social interaction that takes place there. Yeah, there is, you know, we, you know, we take great
• 30:21
  pleasure in witnessing that, and, and, and the joy that people get out of it, you know, if people just
• 30:25
  want to come, and come, and have a drink, and just walk the showground, they might not necessarily
• 30:30
  want to do any business or anything, you know, that's great, the, the event is, is for the
• 30:34
  industry, it's for, it's for organizers, it's for the supply chain, it's for venues, it's, it's for
• 30:39
  everyone, you know, and that's reflected in our exhibitor list, you know, we don't just have
• 30:45
  hirers exhibiting, but we also have manufacturers, you know, so they're there selling to suppliers,
• 30:50
  the hires are there pitching to event organizers, we want everybody there, and it's, and,
• 30:57
  and because the, where it is in the year, the calendar year, again, people have been out on
• 31:02
  site, they've been on the road for the last six months, you know, they want that kind of break,
• 31:06
  that, to see that, to see their friends, you know, their colleagues, their, their clients,
• 31:12
  and, and just have, give them a cuddle, and say, you know, what a year that was,
• 31:16
  well, you know, what plans you got for next year, it's, it's that, and it's,
• 31:21
  maybe there's a new feature of the show, cuddle corner,
• 31:28
  have you had a busy summer event season, yeah,
• 31:31
  cuddle corner to get free, free hugs, yeah, yeah, yeah, whether it be good or bad season,
• 31:37
  yeah, you know, absolutely, but, well, you know, long may it continue in that respect, and I'm,
• 31:44
  I'm, you know, I've got a hunch, actually, that after several years of not being able to attend,
• 31:48
  because of my own sort of diary clashes, and work that I have going on at that time of year,
• 31:54
  I'm, I'm quietly confident that you'll actually see me there this year, you must come, maybe,
• 31:59
  maybe, maybe, maybe even with the event industry news microphone, that the orange,
• 32:05
  the orange microphone will be broken out of its emergency case, and be put back into the wild,
• 32:11
  discussions are still ongoing between my people, and, and other people,
• 32:18
  we actively encourage you to do that, please do, you're very welcome, for those who haven't come
• 32:26
  across the website, looked at it before, let's make sure that people can, can find you, and do
• 32:30
  their own little bits of research, and look into it, if people want to, want to look at the show a
• 32:35
  bit more, give us a website, Johnny, okay, so the website is showmans-directory.co.uk,
• 32:42
  and please do all the information about the show, when and where it is, you can already register to
• 32:47
  visit, if you just want to come along, and check it out, our exhibitor list is already up, we've
• 32:51
  got over 190 companies already signed up to exhibit, so it's all, it's all looking good,
• 32:57
  we've got a quick new, a couple of new things this year, if we've got time, no, please, no,
• 33:04
  please, yeah, we've extended our indoor exhibition hall to 95 meters, which is the largest it's ever
• 33:10
  been since, in its 42 year history, wow, and we've almost sold out of that, that's proved really
• 33:16
  popular this year, and we're also launching a new feature called the working hub this year,
• 33:22
  and that's literally, we're creating a space for literally people to come and, and do some work,
• 33:28
  if they want to send an email, do a, do a voice call, or just have a quick meeting, it's going to
• 33:33
  be free and open to all, because it's something that we realize, it's, it's an open field, you
• 33:39
  know, and there's actually no way for people just to kind of go, and go, and sit down, and do an
• 33:45
  email, so yeah, and we see more and more events doing this, don't we, but business events, because
• 33:51
  you know, yes, there's a lot of benefit to people attending, but it is also a commitment, and it's
• 33:57
  important that we, the organizers recognize that it's a commitment for people to take one or two
• 34:01
  days out of their day-to-day work diary, to come and visit, so to give people the opportunity to
• 34:06
  maybe stay connected, to not feel like they're, they're having to ditch work for a couple of days,
• 34:10
  and then there's my backlog, it's such a great thing to have now, that people, where people can
• 34:14
  go and sit quietly, check a few emails, you know, have a video meeting, you know, meet face-to-face
• 34:19
  with somebody, it's a great sort of facility to have, isn't it, at any event. Absolutely, absolutely,
• 34:24
  yeah, so we're, yeah, we're, we're doing that this year, so yeah, it's just to add a bit of value to
• 34:29
  the show for, for both visitors and exhibitors. Fabulous, it's been great talking to you,
• 34:34
  talking to you today, talking with you today, I can't believe it's taken this long to do it,
• 34:40
  I firmly believe we should make this an annual thing, you know, about this coming year, let's
• 34:45
  talk about, you know, the show the year before, let's talk about what's new, just come on and
• 34:48
  have a chat every year and let us know what's happening. No, I'd love that, that'd be lovely,
• 34:53
  it's always good to see you James. It'd be great, just a couple of mentions before we wrap up today,
• 34:58
  for some bits and pieces at our end of the operation, if you're listening to today's
• 35:02
  podcast on your podcast audio platform, thank you very much for doing so, great to have you on board,
• 35:07
  don't forget to subscribe so that you may get all the episodes as they drop, whether that be on
• 35:13
  Spotify or Apple Podcasts or all of those sort of different audio podcast platforms, make sure that
• 35:18
  you are subscribed, please as well, if you've listened to this today via audio, make sure that
• 35:23
  you take a few minutes to hop over to eventindustrynews.com, you can find video versions
• 35:28
  of all of the podcasts, as well as things like the A to Z supplier directory, if you work in the
• 35:33
  industry and you're looking for a product, service or a supplier, the chances are you'll find it on
• 35:37
  the A to Z supplier directory over on eventindustrynews.com, as well as all the sort of special
• 35:41
  features and supplements and good stuff like that, that the team at Event Industry News are
• 35:46
  constantly putting out there, which brings us sort of nicely to the end of today's episode,
• 35:50
  and I must wrap up by saying once again a big thank you to our brand new Event Industry News
• 35:56
  podcast sponsor, Present Communications. Present provides broadcast quality live hybrid and virtual
• 36:02
  event production, trusted by organisations where reliability really matters, from corporate town
• 36:07
  halls and conferences to high profile live streams, they design and deliver fully resilient systems
• 36:12
  that work first time. Big thanks to the team at Present Comms for supporting the podcast and
• 36:17
  making it possible, and my thanks finally, of course, to my guest today from the showman's show,
• 36:22
  Johnny Lance. Johnny, it's been a pleasure talking to you and I'll see you very soon, my friend.
• 36:26
  No worries, thank you very much James, see you, take care.