“We are passionate about putting together a world-class event that is interesting and exciting for consumers while delivering value to exhibitors through increased brand awareness and industry networking,” he continued.
Over 80 wine producers attended the free training day at Lourensford Estate Stellenbosch, in anticipation of The Joburg Wine Show, which takes place at Gallagher Estate from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 June 2007.
Operations director Alex Woodward presented ‘seven steps to effective exhibiting’, covering topics from staff training to cost effective branding to create attractive and interesting stand designs.
Exhibitors were also invited to leverage off The Joburg Wine Show’s advertising and public relations campaigns in the lead up to the event by announcing new wine releases to be launched at the show and advertising special features and promotions.
Kate Jordan of Haxjor Marketing and the top selling exhibitor at The Joburg Wine Show 2006 provided insights on creative questioning, energetic presentation and closing sales in an exhibition environment.
“The retail aspect of The Joburg Wine Show is also an important element that separates The Joburg Wine Show from other wine events,” said Woodward. “Being able to sell wines directly to consumers from the stand means that exhibitors are able to quantify a rand benefit from participation in the show or at least realise the costs of participation.”
According to Woodward, “Unlocking the Gauteng wine market is critical to South African wine producers. Gauteng consumers generally have greater disposal incomes and fine dining, entertaining and wine is very much a part of their lifestyle. We felt there was a gap in the market for a Gauteng-based consumer wine event that would stimulate the wine market in Johannesburg and provide opportunities for Cape based producers to meet this key target market. Even more critical is facilitating networking within the industry and helping exhibitors to make the most of this marketing event.”
Cobie van Oort, marketing manager at Avontuur Estate, said that this was the first training day she has been invited to by a wine show. “I enjoyed the information about the stands and the examples from other international wine shows; however, the most useful to me was the sales talk. Kate Jordan’s stand was opposite mine at The 2006 Joburg Wine Show and we got used to seeing visitors going past us towards the exit, loaded with wine they had bought from her, now I know why! I’ll be using her presentation with my own staff and hopefully will be able to benefit from it this year at our own Helderberg stand.”
Wim Braak of Lourensford Estate added , “We were delighted to host the training day at our estate. As an exhibitor of the show we found the day to be invaluable from a stand design and sales perspective. It’s great that Highwood Exhibitions took the initiative to put this on for their exhibitors. We are really looking forward to the show!”
