Back when the announcement of the FIT show was made early this year, many of us queried why it was made so early. In fact from memory it was announced around 14 months before the event was due to take place! I think many of us were skeptical of an event being launched well over a year in advance.

But our appetite for the event hasn’t faded away. I think it’s fair to say that many of us have those dates, 16th-18th April 2013, marked in our diary and we all intend on going. The creators of the FIT Show did a lot of research into the dates and they settled. But I still think that if it had been more near a weekend i.e. Thursday and Friday, not slap bang in the middle of the week, it would have encourage a few more to go that maybe don’t want to take a chunk out of the middle of their busy week and maybe could have persuaded a few more to stay over night, encouraging some more informal networking at hotels in the surrounding area. Though I’m sure RCG will put me right on this ;)

Despite businesses really tightening their spending belts, the FIT Show has done well to sell almost all of it’s floor space so early before the show actually begins. It’s a demonstration that there is still an appetite for a big industry show, at least from an exhibitor point of view. The key to this being a success is getting people through the door. It all well and good companies paying thousands of pounds to put a stand in the halls, but people have to come see what they have to offer if this event is going to be a recurring one.

I think they’ll do it. The Master Fitter and Sales Professional Of The Year competitions will mean there has to be some direct company involvement from all corners of our industry. No, I won’t be entering the sales person competition before any of you ask! There are better ones than me! But both competitions are a great way of showing off the skills required in this industry and that not everyone is a cowboy!

There’s only 8 months left until the doors at the Telford International Centre open. Time moves quickly when you bury your head in hard work, but that is all that is left to make sure this is a show that is worth of an industry worth more to the UK than the music industry is.