Whilst the annual September Gift Fair event will continue at the Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour, The Gifts & Homewares Association have announced the cancellation of their normally simultaneouse event which was to take place at Sydney Showground this September. 

As some of GHA’s exhibitors had previously changed over to the Reed event and the numbers of exhibitors were generally down due to perceived difficult trading conditions, the GHA were unable to get sufficient numbers of exhibitors to properly stage their event. So GHA’s September gift fair at Sydney Showgrounds Homebush 2008 has been cancelled.

GHA advise that their February 2009 Home & Giving Fair will still be taking place as planned and have also announced the launch of a new July Home & Giving Fair in Sydney from 2009, which will replace their September Gift Fair.

For more details of the Sydney September gift fair see our gifts and homewares trade fairs information guide page for the september sydney gift fair.

 The Beachgirls of the 1950’s collection have certainly proven to be a great success for designers Beachhouse Decor as they make excellent gifts and great decorative accessories. Retailers are also still getting a lot of requests for designs from the previous collection, which of course are no longer available as they are limited edition releases. The current series have been featured in the Take 5 magazine mid June 2008 issue.

The current collection features a set of three figurines wearing old fashioned swimsuit designs from that era. Two have a one piece swimming costume  and one has a two piece bikini, which although quite modest by todays standards, was seen as very daring in those days. Retailers can get these wholesale from Akcent Decor, consumers can buy them online at coastaldesigns.com.au

The annual Brisbane gift fair is on again next month (12th to 15th July). The event features a large contingent of gifts and homewares wholesalers exhibiting their new seasons designs for the retail industry. The event also usually includes a large number of handbags, jewellery and fashion accessories.

Statistics from last years fair, by event organiser Reed Exhibitions, shows that over 7500 visitors attended, of which 93% had purchasing authority for their business. Reed’s statistics also show that around 37% of the visitors attended on more than one day.

The most interesting statistic from the event organisers is that a huge 74% of the visitors only ever attend the Brisbane event. Whilst its the only annual event of its type in Brisbane,  their counterparts visiting other events in other states are much more likely to attend more than one trade fair event per year.

For full details of the Brisbane gift fair event see our Australian trade Fairs Guide – Brisbane section