FIT Show 2021 cancelled

FIT Show 2021 has been cancelled due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, FIT Show 2022 will take place from Tuesday May 10, to Thursday May 12.

Organisers blamed uncertainty around the restrictions that remained to control the pandemic, which was still raging in July 2021 despite the rollout of the vaccine.

FIT Show event director Nickie West said: “We have been monitoring the ever-changing situation in relation to Covid and, after careful assessment, we believe that it is best for our exhibitors and visitors if we postpone FIT Show until May 2022.

“It’s always our priority to run a safe and successful event for our audience. The sharp rise in positive cases, coupled with the ongoing ambiguity surrounding what restrictions would need to be in place by September, created too much uncertainty.

“We have worked closely with our stakeholders and the NEC to create a new timeline that we believe is both safer, and provides greater certainty for the market.

“By postponing until the spring of 2022 we believe that the majority of the UK will have been vaccinated, supply chain issues will have started to ease, and we will be able to return to large scale events.”

Glass Times understands there was particular uncertainty surrounding the businesses that were sending delegates from beyond the UK – either to visit the show, or to exhibit – and whether the need to self-isolate would affect their decision to participate.

The announcement to cancel FIT Show 2021 came in the same week that Smart Ready, together with sister company SAC Hardware, withdrew its support saying that the situation is “too high risk from a commercial and a safe-guarding perspective”.

Smart Ready had promised to unveil “the greatest innovation the industry has ever seen”, while Sac Hardware was going to offer “genuine step change hardware solutions for the way windows and doors are fabricated and installed”.

Giovanni Laporta, MD of both businesses, said: “As one of the exhibition’s most staunch supporters, the decision to withdraw from September’s show was very difficult to say the least.

“However, hand on heart, I believe life at the moment is just too uncertain and September, less than two months away, is too high risk from a commercial and a safe-guarding perspective.”

Giovanni also said that there are massive supply chain issues.

“Supply within our sector is at its most fragile and unstable standing that I’ve ever seen with mind-blowing price hikes increasingly becoming the norm,” he said.

“At the moment the appetite for new products just isn’t there, which for us is what the FIT show is all about. Exhibiting in eight weeks’ time would essentially be gambling and playing roulette with my brands’ finances in this climate. This is not something I’m prepared to do.”

Nickie said that no other platform can compete with the power of live events when it comes to connecting brands with the market.

“It has never been an option to flip FIT Show to virtual, it just would not deliver what our market wants and needs: face-to-face interaction, and to see, touch and compare all of the latest products side-by-side,” she said.

“We will, however, be delivering our CPD approved learning programme virtually in September as a key touchpoint in our campaign, to engage with our FIT Show community between now and May.”

Most brands that signed up to exhibit at FIT Show 2021 will move over to the postponed May 2022 timeline.

Following the postponement, FIT Show will maintain its biennial frequency, returning for its scheduled dates in May 2023 onwards.