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Warren Edwardes
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1 month ago
in FENAVIN 2009 - Reflections on 5 Wine Fair Cycles in Spain on Catavino
It was great being invited to FENAVIN and great bumping into you Ryan at LIWF on Tuesday.
Some thoughts as I read in the Spanish press claims that FENAVIN was as good as LIWF. I am afraid it falls way behind on a few basics which are to me much more important than technology.
1. The feedback form is on paper to be faxed. Well I receive faxes via email and can't send faxes. So this blog gets my comments before the organisers.
2. Smoking and strong perfume were quite common at FENAVIN. OK there was a lot of Body Odour at LIWF so that evens things.
3. There were no general large floor standing spitoons. The small table-top ones get filled quickly and generate un-hygenic splash-back. Also the exhibitors had to keep dashing off to empty the spitoons and leaving their stands empty.
4. The toilets were dirty from from very first day.
5 I thought women were using the men's toilets until i discovered that the red stains in the toilet bowls were a result of spitoons being emptied. Not very sound in terms of germ control.
6. The glassware had to be taken to the cleaning stations by the exhibitors themselves. Is there full employment in Ciudad Real?
7. On arrival i was SOLD a catalogue. Hey I have been flown from London plus taxi Barajas to Atocha and then train to Ciudad Real and a coach to a paid up hotel and I have to BUY a show catalogue only to find a FREE catalogue (on paper) in the business centre.
8. But I love Spain so forgive most things. But then at 15:00 on the last day Thursday most of the stands decided that they were going to pack up and go home including everybody in Las Canarias and most of Malaga. The show had been advertised as closing at 19:00 and I still had work to do and only a handful of exhibitors were still there at 19:00.
Some thoughts as I read in the Spanish press claims that FENAVIN was as good as LIWF. I am afraid it falls way behind on a few basics which are to me much more important than technology.
1. The feedback form is on paper to be faxed. Well I receive faxes via email and can't send faxes. So this blog gets my comments before the organisers.
2. Smoking and strong perfume were quite common at FENAVIN. OK there was a lot of Body Odour at LIWF so that evens things.
3. There were no general large floor standing spitoons. The small table-top ones get filled quickly and generate un-hygenic splash-back. Also the exhibitors had to keep dashing off to empty the spitoons and leaving their stands empty.
4. The toilets were dirty from from very first day.
5 I thought women were using the men's toilets until i discovered that the red stains in the toilet bowls were a result of spitoons being emptied. Not very sound in terms of germ control.
6. The glassware had to be taken to the cleaning stations by the exhibitors themselves. Is there full employment in Ciudad Real?
7. On arrival i was SOLD a catalogue. Hey I have been flown from London plus taxi Barajas to Atocha and then train to Ciudad Real and a coach to a paid up hotel and I have to BUY a show catalogue only to find a FREE catalogue (on paper) in the business centre.
8. But I love Spain so forgive most things. But then at 15:00 on the last day Thursday most of the stands decided that they were going to pack up and go home including everybody in Las Canarias and most of Malaga. The show had been advertised as closing at 19:00 and I still had work to do and only a handful of exhibitors were still there at 19:00.
1 reply
Wine Pleasures
Yes but yet you (wine importers) still support them and continue to go and then the next one as bad as the previous. Shouldn't you make the decision to stop going to these large trade events - that way organisers might wake up and find out why. Wineries are also guilty - they continue to pay Fenavin, Alimentaria et al money for what amounts to a small % of quality buyers while the remainder of buyers are there for a good party which of course they get.
