Another Boring Exhibition in Sandton
AA Staff Writer - Johannesburg, 6 August 2002

If you were too busy or too disinterested to attend the recent building exhibition held at the Sandton Convention Centre then count yourself lucky.

The venue, as beautiful as it is, is completely wrong for a building exhibition. In fact, it is completely wrong for most exhibitions - but that is another issue.

I have been faithfully attending these annual building exhibitions since 1976 and - yes - this one was the worst and my last. Let me tell you why...

In the "old" days exhibitions were a necessity not an industry. Today we have lost the meaning and purpose of building exhibitions - somewhere along the line they stopped serving the needs of the building industry in favour of needs and demands of the "exhibitions industry".

I was lucky enough to find parking two hundred yards away in a maze of subterranean dungeons policed by very nice and very apologetic men in blue blazers.

After loosing my way twice I managed to find an elevator shaft with an A3 sign with an arrow and the word "EXHIBITION" on it. Next to it there was another very nice man in a blue blazer that pressed the lift button for me and wished me a warm welcome. The Sandton Convention Centre gets five stars for Hospitality and zero stars for Aspect.

This is how the corporate brochure shows the complex;

This is what you see when you get there;

You see that there is no parking, no drop off (it gets fenced off for VIPs only) and no way of getting yourself into the exhibition without taking on a dungeon experience - which if you are from out of town is going to take you a good half hour to discover. 

No thanks - never again. I don't need to go to Sandton to be treated like I am inconsequential to the event.

The tepid same-old-same-old corporate lot, tired and packed into extremely boring stands in an airless and windowless environment with bad acoustics bravely sat out the event. No innovation, no creativity, no concern for the industry which purports to be on show. What a sham!

My sense of humour was somewhat restored when I discovered the Plumbing Exhibition tucked away in the basement hall. I always have time for a plumber and they always have time for me. I say well done to the Plumbdrain guys for putting on a good show in spite of the shortcomings of the venue.

I believe that the scales are now so balanced against exhibition visitors that an hour hour spent browsing on the Internet is more fruitful and more productive than hauling butt to an event of this nature.

Judging by the number of visitors present on the day that I was there, I am one of the last ones to find this out.
 

Is it a hotel at 2 AM?
Is it an airport at 4 AM?
Is it a shopping precinct at 6 AM?
Or is it King Mswati's new garden gazebo?
No...
it's another busy day at the Sandton Convention Centre!

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