The UK’s new equipment exhibition should march to the beat of its own drum if it is to succeed.
Retrospection equips us all with rose-coloured spectacles. Even those that lived through the dark years of the Second World War are fond of describing the time as “the good old days”. And that, perhaps, is why many of us – myself included – look back with such sadness at what we now perceive as the untimely demise of the SED exhibition a few years ago.
But set aside the sentimentality and think back to what SED had really become. Sure, it was bigger, brasher than anyone could ever have imagined in its Hatfield and Whipsnade infancy. And yes, it was making cash by the shed-load, mostly for people with no affinity to the construction and demolition business the show was originally created to serve. But, in truth, it had become a commercial monster; a Bauma wannabe; an annual crucifixion of the finances of the exhibitors and the patience of visitors.
Towards the end of its life, SED had become like a Tesco superstore where you have to trawl past aisles filled with clothing, electronics and kitchenware merely to buy a loaf of bread. I for one had long since grown tired of mobile phone suppliers and local car dealers vying for elbow room among the real plant. I never missed a show in 20 years but there were times towards the end when would have gladly foregone the schlep to the featureless wastelands of Rockingham.
Plantworx now has the opportunity to turn back the clock to a time when the annual gathering of plant buyers and enthusiasts was led more by a desire to serve than by a desire to profit. And while I would not begrudge anyone from profiting from the hard work involved in putting on a show of this magnitude, I sincerely hope that they have learned the lessons of the past.
Certainly, based upon the pre-promotion of the exhibition and its engagement with exhibitors and visitors demonstrated so far, that is certainly the case. The organisers and the promotional team deserve great credit already.
So as I pack my UK exhibition bag – t-shirts, shorts, workwear kilt and sunglasses/sowester, wellies, umbrella and inflatable dinghy – I have some simple hopes for Plantworx.
• I hope that the sun shines, that visitors arrive in their droves, and that they leave feeling more positive about the UK economy
• I hope that the parking and lunch-time veggie burger costs less in a Warwickshire field than it does at a hotel in London
• And I hope that by this time next week we’re no longer talking about the new SED; we’re talking simply about Plantworx.
