The battle of the shows

THIS year’s Windhoek Agricultural and Industrial Show will have to compete for visitors with a Lifestyle Expo organised by MTC at the same time.

Held at the Windhoek Independence and Rugby stadiums at the same time as the Windhoek Show, the Expo will give ‘real choice’ to consumers, according to MTC’s General Manager of Commercial Operations, Albertus Aochamub.However, the Vice President and Managing Director of the Windhoek Show, Harald Schmidt, questioned MTC’s logic of holding its expo at the same time as the long-established show.He said exhibitions ‘have certain economies of scale’ and that the MTC expo could disrupt these expected numbers.He also questioned MTC’s motives ‘when a firm like [MTC] does not support an existing thing and rather goes into something they know nothing about’. Schmidt claims the investment needed to start a new show from scratch could have been used to upgrade existing structures at the Windhoek showgrounds, so that Namibians ‘would have something for the following years’. Aochamub justified the new show by saying that ‘our [MTC’s] view is that the Windhoek Show does not meet our needs’.He said the agricultural component of the Show was ‘second to none’ but questioned the industrial and commercial aspects.Aochamub said the company has already ‘seen good progress’ in attracting exhibitors who see the new show as ‘providing real entertainment and not just a flea market’. Schmidt however sees a more sinister motive in MTC’s decision to go it alone.A South African events organiser approached the showgrounds management last year, wanting to rent the premises for a whole year.He was turned down, as the management was not sure what the grounds would be used for.Schmidt said this same organiser then approached MTC with the idea of a new expo, apparently because ‘he has an agenda against the [Windhoek] show’. Aochamub however said MTC is ‘not starting the expo just to be against the show’ but rather to ‘provide an alternative’.He said there would be a wide variety of entertainment at the expo, focusing on all age groups and genders, as ‘we cannot just have the same old dangerous merry-go-round’. On the timing, he said rather than try and lure people away from the Windhoek Show, holding the MTC expo at the same time would give people an opportunity to visit both exhibitions.This would then turn the City of Windhoek into an ‘attraction’ at that time and might prompt more out-of-town visitors to make the trip here. Schmidt in turn said the Windhoek Show has not yet ‘realised we are in competition with another operator’ as their exhibitor bookings have remained stellar. On the allegation that the show was selling too many cheap, mainly Chinese-produced goods, Schmidt responded that this was the cost of having an all-inclusive show where anybody could exhibit.But he said that ‘we have considered this [issue] and will sieve exhibitors more carefully’.For example, only officially registered small and medium enterprises would be allowed to exhibit this year. It now seems as if Nedbank and Air Namibia will be part of both exhibitions, as both Aochamob and Schmidt mentioned them as co-sponsors of their events.