This year’s Silmo was all set to be the first where the dark shadow of Covid-19 hadn’t been loitering ominously in the shadows, meaning visitors could once again welcome the buzzy Paris trade show of yore.
The hot topic of conversation was rather unusual, however. People weren’t asking one another about new collections or rumoured acquisitions, but the location of exhibitor’s stands.
Despite reporting the news Silmo organisers had announced that the venue’s hall seven would be used instead of the usual hall five, I too was caught out by the switch of halls at the Parc des Expositions.
The cause of the upheaval was to make sure the venue was ready for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, although there didn’t seem to be much evidence of preparation going on for the planned boxing, modern pentathlon and sitting volleyball events set to take place next year.
Like many of the visitors, my bearings were quickly lost and completely new layouts across both halls was a lot to take in. Did it ruin my experience?
No, but I was there for a few days and had spare time to get lost a few times, receiving sympathetic looks from people on stands as I walked by their stand for the fifth time in five minutes.
For a professional visitor, having to spend more time looking at a map than at products would have been a little bit annoying.
But not as annoying as some of the exhibitors had it. I lost count of the companies that were unhappy with the position of their stand, or the position of their stand in relation to others.
Many of these companies have exhibited in little neighbourhoods within hall five for well over a decade, so uprooting them to new unknown positions is likely to have left a sour taste in their mouths.