Well it would be wrong of me to tell you exactly what you can expect, as it would blow the surprise for some. Although I have seen some of the stand designs for some businesses and they really do look fantastic, so credit to the designers or design companies that have helped put them together. There are some works of art about to be shown next week.

What I can say though is that you can expect a shed load of new products. I think most companies exhibiting have waited until this week to properly launch their new lines, and that is to be expected. However whether they are all game changers remains to be seen. Not everything can be a game changer of course and some products announced will just be innovations of existing lines, improving on already current ranges. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t get carried away with all the hype.

You can also expect better car parking. One of the few but biggest gripes last year was the parking. By all accounts extra car parking spaces have been provided so that minimal walking to the centre is required. I’m also hoping the WiFi is going to be a bit better this time. It was rather shaky last time and if I am to keep my live page updated regularly, I need good WiFi!

If you’re going to the Gala Dinner this year, then enjoy it. It is a good side event to the main show and a chance to get suited a booted. I went last year and was probably the youngest and youngest looking person there. I’m not going this year, as I have other plans at hand ;-). If you’re going but you don’t really do suits and posh dinners, then hand your ticket to someone else, this won’t be your thing!

Like in sport, a good debut needs to be backed up with a great secondary performance, and there is no exception with the FiT Show. With over 5800 guests last year, I am sure the team will be hoping even more will spare the time to come this time round. With over 150 exhibitors, daily seminars about both fairly dry and juicy subjects, restaurants and bars and even an 02 bar, there should be plenty to fill a day, if not three.

The hype this year I think has been more managed, and that is a good thing. A more managed build up allows for a more climactic end to the event.

There will be a certain degree of expectation. I suspect a few vars were raised last year for some, so the expectation to provide a better event will obviously be there. But although a lot of attention is being put on the event itself and it’s surrounding marketing, we have to bear in mind that this exhibition is here to serve the industry and the companies that decide they want to be part of it.

For many exhibiting businesses, this will be their only major event in this country to show off any new products they might be launching, as well as new marketing material, customer service drives and anything they wish to launch. It’s a bit like a music festival. Everyone starts to get excited when they see preparations for the festival happening, like the stages and arenas going up. But when those gates open and the bands start, that’s when the real stuff happen. The same goes with this.

As you may have seen now, I have launched my live page covering this year’s FiT Show. This will be one of the best places to keep up to date with the daily goings on in Telford. I’ll try and get round as many of the stands as possible, posting images and videos of whatever is worth reporting on, and of course I’ll be throwing in some of my own thoughts for good measure.

You can follow the live page by clicking this link which will take you to the dedicated page: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/fit-show-2014-live/ or you can catch up with it so far at the bottom of this post. It’s a little quiet now, but as the weekend rolls on, it will get busier as more activity grows.