New Australian jewellery fair announced

Posted June 17, 2010 |

Melbourne will host its very own jewellery fair next year, a move that will fill a long-standing gap in the jewellery industry calendar.

The “Autumn Jewellery Fair” will run over two days, from April 30 to May 1, 2011 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

It will be Australia’s third jewellery fair, joining August’s JAA International Jewellery Fair in Sydney and March’s JAA Australian Jewellery Fair in Brisbane.

The Melbourne fair is being billed as “a boutique event”, operating with a simpler format to the existing fairs.

All three events are organised by Expertise Events, in conjunction with the JAA.

Expertise Events managing director Gary Fitz-Roy, who announced the fair on Wednesday, said he decided to launch a new fair after realising a large portion of the jewellery industry was not being catered for.

“On review of the visitor data from the last Brisbane Fair, I observed that very few retailers travelled from Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia... from a buyer point of view they are not being serviced,” he said.

He said the new fair would differ to his company’s existing events.

“We’re not trying to replicate what we already have in the marketplace... I propose a different style of event designed to control costs and support the needs of the southern states,” he said.

“It would be a day and a half format and the maximum any one exhibitor could book is three stands,” he said, adding, “The stands would be basic; a back wall, sign, light and option of trestle table or glass cabinet”.

Fitz-Roy said the fair was likely to “grow over time” as demand increased.

“We did something similar when we launched the Brisbane Fair, and as the demand grew from the retailers and exhibitors we let it slowly grow,” he said.

Expertise Events will be advertising the event in the coming months.

Exhibitors interested in registering – and retailers interested in attending – can find out more from the Expertise Events website.

More information: Fairs & Events

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