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blueleaf plants

Organisation

Sales

Communication

Atmosphere

Unfortunately, this event which, given the hype should have generated a lot of business was very disappointing. It was an expensive and time-consuming event for me and a lot of hard work for which I got very little return.

To start with a positive – the administration of the event was very slick and efficient and information was very forthcoming and easy to manage. However, I was bombarded with emails from partners of Clarion offering additional paid for services. Personally, if you are considering doing this event, I think they are unnecessary, but it depends on your budget. Despite keeping my expenses to a minimum, I still made a loss – having to hire a van and find accommodation in Central London, takes a heavy toll.

For the negatives – overall, the atmosphere was very flat and lifeless. A small group of musicians played a small selection of middle of the road muzak over the 4 days which made me want to cut my wrists – God only knows how the customers felt. I hasten to add that the musicians were very competent and probably bored by the music they were asked to pay. There was an expectation on my part that this would be a professional and stylish show. I was wrong. Looking down on the main hall, you could see the storage areas of the stall holders at the ends of the hall.

The Brand – GROW London – was purchased by Clarion in late 2016 but unfortunately, the new incarnation of this popular and well-thought of event was unrecognisable. There were very few garden inspired stalls present and those of us under the GROW banner were shunted to the gallery area of the hall, which looked half-hearted and empty. Many people attending the show were very disappointed to find few relics of GROW. Some were very angry as they had paid a fair sum for their ticket to find very little Garden stands but lots of jewellery and clothes and scarves. As far as many of us were concerned, numbers were not as expected and the age group was older than hoped for. No-one seemed interested or willing to look let alone buy.

On the practicalities – Olympia has good transport links and is central. The booking in system for vehicle unloading and loading was effective, though as always breakdown was chaotic. Only one service lift serves the gallery area so there can be large queues. If you time your drop-offs well, you can have the lift to yourself. Having said that, the lift was able to clear all the gallery by 9.30pm on the Saturday which was pretty good.

GROW London wasn’t great for me last year, but at least I covered my costs. I had high hopes for this show, but I think this kind of show has now reached saturation point. There needs to be a clear idea behind something like this so both stall holders and consumers know what to expect. The House and Garden Festival appeared to me to be unclear who it was aiming at and so was a disappointment to everyone. As a result, I have made a decision that this will be the very last large show of this nature that I will attend – I can’t afford to do more.
3 years ago
Ana Maton

Organisation

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Communication

Atmosphere

A waste of money. An overpriced show with very poor footfall.

Too many of the same products being sold which is boring for the visitors and a bad return for exhibitors.
3 years ago
Catherine

Organisation

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Atmosphere

The show lacked the energy I had hoped for and people didnt seem to be shopping as much as usual but the demographic of customers is excellent. We were selling both big ticket items and small accessories and certainly were nowhere near breaking even from sales generated over the four days. However, we received an enormous amount of genuine interest and positive feedback, so, it remains to be seen how effective it is for us as the after-sales could be significant.
3 years ago
Anonymous

Organisation

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Atmosphere

Very very disappointing. Low footfall, more gift market than an upmarket ‘house’ show which is very much how it was sold to me. Lots of unsold stands (bonus for the exhibitors that got extra free space though, not me sadly). The people that did attend were good but nowhere near enough of them to even cover stand costs, let alone all other costs. My first and last time at this show.
3 years ago
Lesley

Organisation

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Atmosphere

Although the show had many positives such as iconic location, excellent transport links and good customer demographic it wasn’t the stylish House and Garden Show we expected. When visitors eventually found the GROW London section they were very disappointed with the lack of stands and, where you ask was the wonderful garden feature to welcome you at the top of the stairs? My guests felt that GROW London was very much an after-thought.

Why put stands with plants, garden furniture and in our case heavy antique items in the gallery area which has only one goods lift? The breakdown was stressful enough with queuing at the lift without the last minute advice that we had to totally vacate the stand by 8pm or else we would get fined – where did this come from?

I cannot fault the Clarion staff who were very helpful and obviously concerned about the situation and the hall was kept spotlessly clean by Olympia staff. We met some great new customers and sold some lovely items but sadly will not be exhibiting here again due to the logistics, high cost of the stand and poor financial return.
3 years ago
Zoe Slater

Organisation

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Atmosphere

An excruciatingly bad show. When I complained even the Managing Director said he couldn’t see what the problem was. My advice is not to exhibit here unless you are a value brand. This is not a luxury show. Beware.
3 years ago
Mary Loetke

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A terrible show unless you’re looking for overpriced boho clothes. This show has gone downhill.
3 years ago
Anonymous

Organisation

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Atmosphere

Shambles
3 years ago
Karen Wainwright

Organisation

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Atmosphere

Lovely location and great transport links but the wrong week. Royal Ascot, Queens tennis take away a large slice of customers usually visiting when it used to be held earlier.
3 years ago
Sophie

Organisation

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Communication

Atmosphere

This years fair was really terrible. The fair looked beautiful but everybody came for home inspiration and interior design and my product is gift.
3 years ago
Gerhard Reinecke

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Atmosphere

The positive: I had a lot of interest in my products (I’m selling genuine Swiss alpine cheeses online: alpages.co.uk) and I was delighted by how many visitors were attracted by the stand (although many of course only liked the free samples ;-). I’m sure it also helped that I have put a lot of effort into my stand and tried to create something special. I thought, creating a beautiful stand was mandatory, as I understood from the organiser’s communication, according to which the House & Garden Festival is supposed to be a luxury show and the stands are hand selected and should represent this notion of high class. So, I did my best to give the visitors a great experience in that sense. But I was a bit disappointed to see other stands which clearly did not follow the criteria described by House & Garden. Many stands, especially on the food gallery, looked rather cheap and certainly did not fulfill the „hand selected“ „high class“ claims made by the organisers. Something similar applies to the visitors. I have my doubt whether they truly “encompass richest 10% in the country“ as claimed by the organisers, but of course statistics and personal perceptions can strongly differ. Being in competition with other high class events in the same week certainly doesn’t help either.

So, to conclude the positive side, I think I was able to establish that we are on the right path and that our products can find a market in the UK. This 1:1 market research was very helpful. On the negative side: The costs. They add up. I don’t think it’s possible to make a profit with food at this show, if you include the costs for stand staff, overtime, preparation, transport etc. As footfall on the gallery is strong only from about 11.30 to 3.30pm, that means you have to figure out how much you can actually sell in 4×4 hours. But it’s best not to try to make a profit anyway. If you look at the costs as advertising investment, you’re certainly better off. But then, are the prices justified? The price for the stand is probably quite ok – if all the stands would indeed follow the rules and add a sense of luxury to the show. To be part of an elected few would justify the £1500 for a 3 x 2m stand. But being in the company of stands that look like some village fair stalls is certainly not worth that amount.

Worse, the additional costs are a rip off. The contractor exploits its monopoly to the full: A 4 day rent of a Lighting Track with 3 x 50w Spotlights sets you back £208 plus VAT. If you bring your own light, you have to pay £113 for a socket, if you want the socket to be operative 24h (eg because you want to store things in a fridge), it costs you £363. Yes, that’s for 4 days, not for a year. And the rental costs for furniture? You’re better off buying it and then trowing it away at the end of the show. Oh, I forgot the IT services: If you’d thought you’d need a WLAN for your credit card device, you’d pay something like £400 (if you manage to understand the graphically challenging form by the contractor e-force ).

I tried the normal 3G coverage and it worked perfectly well. Don’t rely on the public WiFi for that, it doesn’t work. That’s not the only infrastructure not working… if you need a toilet while build up, you’re not allowed to use the next one, your £1500 stand doesn’t include that – they only open one toilet in the whole hall, in order to save some pennies on cleaning. When you’re unlucky, your stand is miles away from your stand. And there is only one goods lift. I call it the chapel, because everytime you use it, you pray that the operator manages to close the doors correctly and to press the right button in order to make it work (we were once waitng 10 minutes until this happened. “It’s knackered” said the operator. Indeed. And as soon as it’s working, you pray again for it won’t be stuck mid way. Overall conclusion: On the food gallery, The House & Garden Festival could do with some more high end offers. Then it could be an interesting place to show a high end brand. But as it seems, the organisers struggle to bring enough glamour up there. I’d probably be back if I could be certain that my brand is in good company, as the brands „Louis Roederer“ and „Mosimann“ on the Festival communications suggested.
3 years ago
Mary

Organisation

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Atmosphere

The show was good for me. I was in a good position and had an original product that people were interested in and it sold well. The organisation was efficient and professional and staff were extremely helpful. My euphoria was slightly marred because my phone was stolen on the last day, disastrously it was also my payment method, but that was entirely my fault and the security staff acted fast to do all the right things.

But, the show is hugely expensive for a small business. The stand fee is far too high and the extras are a ridiculous price. There is a constant threat which is repeated frequently over the tannoy that we’re going to be fined for some misdemeanour. There is too much paper work being emailed through, and the links didn’t always work nor the electrics booking system. Surely it could be simplified?

The demographic of shoppers was good, apart from Saturday which was dire, but there could have been more footfall. Maybe other dates need to be considered in future, it is socially a busy time in London.
3 years ago
Kim Scillitoe

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Atmosphere

As a first time exhibitor at the show, we were really disappointed by the overall footfall (promised 23,000 but can’t see how it was anything near this figure). We subsequently didn’t come close to breaking even which was soul destroying given all the sweat (quite literally) and tears we all put into the build of the stand.

We were initially recommended the Spirit of Christmas fair by a fellow exhibitor at Country Living but were told by the organisers, when trying to book, that we were much more likely to be accepted for the Christmas fair if we did the summer one.

We understand that last year’s Spirit of Summer was held in May and had a significantly higher footfall. This is most likely because it didn’t coincide with other major events.

On a few positive notes, Olympia was a fantastic venue and the staff were extremely helpful. The House & Garden Festival marketing manual made planning logistics really easy but the added extras tipped our budget well over the edge.

We were really pleased with the positive feedback received from all our customers about our stand and products, and we do believe that we have increased our brand awareness a little, though sadly it’s not enough to warrant booking again, unless the date and fees are reviewed for next year.
3 years ago
Les Artisanes

Organisation

Sales

Communication

Atmosphere

Very disappointing show. As some other comments say, it is terribly over priced and very low footfall. Despite the supposed high standards needed to be accepted (as we were told), there were lots of cheap made in China/India products (nothing against these products but the way it was sold to us by the organisers, we were made to believe the product quality would be really high). Quite small show too in terms of exhibitor numbers considering the price of the entry tickets – I wouldn’t pay £17 to see a handful of exhibitors.

In summary – stands too expensive, entry ticket for customers too expensive, not enough customer numbers.

We didn’t cover our costs and lost money for the first time is many years.
3 years ago
Noel le Bon

Organisation

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Atmosphere

A beautiful looking show – we were surrounded by quality and met some lovely people… Not enough of them, however; and seemingly not visiting with the idea of buying – time will tell if the interest generated turns into business..
3 years ago
Nico Villeneuve

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Atmosphere

Done this 2 years now, both times with mediocre results, looking for contacts for top-end bespoke furniture. Show looks quite good, with wide aisles in perennially attractive Olympia. My stand position was good. Cost of doing it far too much for the number of ABC1 visitors attending. As commented below, the extras possibly required are terrible value for money. Time of year too late, should be in May, was competing with other things on then. If the visitor numbers were as stated, I’m a banana, have 25 years experience of these shows and seemed far too empty at several points…

Am old enough to remember the House and Garden Fair in its early days, which attracted a far larger affluent visitor dynamic. This recreation rendered confused by the lingering presence of Spirit of Summer, with variable quality offerings in evidence, some good, some shouldn’t have been allowed in! Too few leading companies in interior design field exhibiting. Unlikely to take part again in its present form.
3 years ago

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