The sudden cancellation of the Musical Instruments and Technology Show has again made the prospect of a major UK consumer show seem remote, but does it really need one?
At a time when smaller, regional events are doing pretty well, the idea of a return to some sort of grandstanding equivalent to the British Music Fair seems somewhat optmistic, but there are always behind the scenes efforts to get such an idea off the ground, particularly within the MIA. In fact, with the Manchester show cancelled, it may even resurrect talk within the trade body of joint-venturing with someone on the project. It is never far from the agenda and perhaps it’s right that a trade body sees such a project as part of its remit. Whether it can find someone (and it’s usually a magazine publisher) willing to take such a gamble seems doubtful. We are not operating in a climate of risk-taking. There’s one which might just be daft enough, but it no longer has the interest.
MITS was, even after its reinvention as more of a consumer-oriented event, never quite convincing. Which is a shame. It needed something to excite the consumer and, unless it had some surprises lined up, didn’t look like it was quite going to be able to deliver that despite the obvious enthusiasm and hard work the Hamerville team were putting into it. There was industry support from some quarters, some big names, but this was a show that did not require a huge outlay in terms of the exhibition space, so it’s no indication that the market is ready for a big budget showcase again. What they were going to do when they got there was key and I’m not convinced we would have seen many of them pulling out all the stops.
Maybe there was a problem with the model. Letting pre-registered customers in for free certainly raised a few eyebrows. Perhaps the idea was to gradually grow it and gain consumer acceptance but it certainly didn’t transmit confidence in the product.
There will be another idea along soon, no doubt. There has been talk in certain quarters of joining with an existing event like the Gadget Show, or the suggestion of a media showcase of new products, but nothing will emerge. The desire for events big or small is cyclical. They have a shelf life that lasts until they get too big and expensive and people start pulling out and talking of the need for something cheaper and more intimate. It is what Musikmesse is experiencing at the moment.
And right now, because there hasn’t been a big UK event for a while, and the German show is in a state of flux, people will be wondering whether the time has come again. But perhaps the uncomfortable truth is that the UK is not the same market that it once was and can no longer generate the right level of noise or excitement. But I’d love to be proved wrong.
