Page 48 - BHTA 100 years

House of Commons date, exhibition dissatisfaction and retail development...
The annual luncheon for 1991 was at a new venue. After many years at the RAC Club, the Association had secured the Harcourt Grill at the House of Commons, with Parliamentary Advisor Dr Ian Twinn sponsoring the event. The event quickly sold out and it would be the rst of many events to be held at the House of Commons over the years.
Another issue which was beginning to appear on the meeting agenda’s was a level of dissatisfaction with Naidex, the only major exhibition in the industry at the time. It attracted the attention of the BBC radio programme ‘Does he take sugar’ on which Secretary Ian Sherwood was interviewed. It was the second interview in a few weeks and followed a discussion on the effects of the recession and new product innovation in the industry.
In a survey by the Association, 55 companies had indicated that they were not satis ed with the organisation of Naidex. However, the BSTA struggled to arrange a meeting with the organisers due to
‘pre-conditions’ that were unable to be met. That
triggered a meeting in Coventry where interested parties came together to hear a presentation from another exhibition company. Shortly after that, the Naidex organisers did agree to meet and the result was the introduction of the rst Exhibitor Committee to work alongside the show organisers.
A good example of how quickly the industry and the marketplace was developing in the early 90’s came as retailer Keep Able was featured in the
“Memories from... Sarah Lepak
I started in a newly created
position, Committee Secretary, when I joined the Association in 1991. Back then it was the norm for me to
nd that I was the only woman in the room at meetings and it has been really encouraging to see that change, with increasing pace, to the point where ” four of our Sections are currently
chaired by women.
BHTA 100 years