Changing dates of trade shows may cause difficulties and a hard-to-keep balance among various shows, companies and visitors, especially in very tight and dense international event calendars.
Starting from 2021 Première Vision Group has decided to anticipate Premiere Vision Paris show's traditional dates with the aim to meet its audiences’ new needs in planning and producing collections according to times that have by large multiplied for more frequent seasonal deliveries and capsules.
The show, that used to take place in mid-February disclosing novelties for the spring-summer season and mid-September for fall-winter, will now be held February 2-4, 2021 for s/s 2022-23 collections, and from July 6-8, 2021 for f/w 2022-23 collections. For 2020, the dates of PV remain unchanged: from February 11-13 for spring-summer and from September 15-17 for fall-winter.
The decision to change dates was taken by PV after a European-wide survey involving 1,765 industry professionals was conducted in late 2019 by IFM (Institut Français de la Mode). About 72% of the brands surveyed favored advancing the trade show to the end of January/early February and 69% favored an event held at the beginning of July. This decision to anticipate dates was further encouraged by a wide-ranging survey of PV’s exhibiting partners, 66% of whom are in favor of bringing the show forward to the end of January/early February, and 70% in favor to hold it in July.
"We understand this topic is a very complex and delicate, and an important concern. For this reason we have been very transparent and precise with other shows," commented Gilles Lasbordes, managing director, PV. "Through information we collected together with surveys and data from IFM, we understood that we had to move our shows as part of a request from our participants. Though we also had to consider other aspects like the availability of the location of Parc Des Expositions, the calendar of national bank holidays and other events happening. For this reason we wanted to inform other shows in advance in order to help all the players of the industry in giving their service to the market. This way they could find solutions or could adapt to the situation, also because before 2021 events happen there is a year and a half and organizations can solve the situation."
As explained by Lasbordes, apparently for 2021 Munich Fabric Start will happen in the last week of January, therefore without overlapping with PV. Milano Unica might happen in the same dates as PV for 2021, though it had already announced some changes of dates for 2022 as its July event was planned to happen on the second week of July.
Other shows involved in this change of dates expressed their opinion on the matter. Sebastian Klinder, managing director of Munich Fabric Start, said: “Last week we informed our exhibitors and visitors for 2021 as our show will take place on January 26-28, 2021, which means without any overlapping dates for the first half of 2021.
As a trade fair organizer, we view ourselves as a partner of the industry and see it as our responsibility to offer the industry an optimal business platform with the best possible timing. As a matter of principle, we try to avoid overlapping dates, as this comes at the expense of the entire industry.
Currently it is not only the industry that is undergoing radical change but also the trade-fair landscape. The strategy proposed by PV, advancing their dates to the beginning of February and July, will present the industry with further challenges such as possible overlaps between other European textile fairs but also in terms shifting the collection cycles. However, this step comes as no surprise to us. Early dates have already been discussed intensively for several years. With the View Premium Selection preview textile show, which was initiated many years ago, we have accelerated and established changes in collection cycles and thus helped to pave the way for an earlier collection presentation and creation. The fact that both PV and Milano Unica will take place on existing dates and proceed without further coordination in the interest of the industry, affects not only us but the entire industry.”
Ercole Botto Poala, president of Milano Unica, said: “We knew about PV’s decision to anticipate its shows. We confirm our already announced dates until July 2023: July 7-9, 2020; July 6-8, 2021; July 12-14, 2022 and July 11-13, 2023. PV’s decision to anticipate confirms that our choice to anticipate dates taken three years ago was farsighted and answered a market’s need. We are aware of the difficulties our overlap with PV for the first week on February 2021, but we will try our best to face the problem.”
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