What a year 2020 was. After a great start to the decade with a fantastic Printwear & Promotion LIVE! 2020, planning for the 2021 exhibition was disrupted and then put on hold due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Along the way we have kept our visitors updated with our plans and have asked for their viewpoint on the return of the exhibition through our visiting intentions surveys.
We first surveyed our visitors in September 2020 to ask about their likelihood of attending in 2021 given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. A huge 71.3% of respondents said their likelihood of attending the exhibition at any time in 2021 was unaffected. Given that in September 2020, there was still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the reopening of large-scale events and the rollout of the vaccine had yet to begin, these results pleasantly surprised us and demonstrated the strong desire for the exhibition to take place.
Unfortunately, an exhibition in 2021 just wasn’t to be, so fast to September 2021 and with exhibitions beginning to take place once again, we posed the same question to our visitors about their likelihood of attending the 2022 exhibition in February. 23.4% said they were now more likely to attend the exhibition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while 64.5% said their likelihood of attending remained unaffected, showing confidence levels among our visitors have increased substantially in the year since our previous survey.
Here are the results in full:
Q. Has your likelihood of attending been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?
| 2020 Survey | 2021 Survey | |||||
| More Likely | 5.1% | 23.4% | ||||
| No | 71.3% | 64.5% | ||||
| Less Likely | 23.5% | 12.1% | ||||
| 100% | 100% | |||||
We also felt the time was right to ask whether the additional requirements now in place at the NEC for visitors to show their COVID-19 status before entry into the venue would affect their attendance. More than 75% of respondents answered that with the new checks in place that they would definitely or be very likely to attend, while only 5% said they would not attend if the checks are in place come February.
And finally, we also asked whether the fact that Printwear & Promotion LIVE! was cancelled for the first time in 30 years would affect our visitors’ attendance in 2022. 28% of respondents said they were now more likely to attend, while 71% said their likelihood of attending in 2022 remained unaffected, which implies our long-standing visitors are looking forward to attending regardless.
It’s always great to read the positive comments our visitors leave when answering surveys of this nature and here are just a few that we received.
“Looking forward to it, I think the vaccine passports will make me more likely to attend.”
“Thank you for the efforts to get the show back on.”
“The show is amazing and I would always attend whatever the situation.”
“We are really looking forward to attending in 2022. I personally don’t like the requirement for vaccine passports and i think they are unnecessary; however, this won’t stop me from attending. See you in 2022.”
“We can’t wait to come and see our suppliers and see new equipment available!”
