The organisers of trade show Luxperience have underlined their commitment to "ironing out" any issues for next year as the inaugural event was hindered by software difficulties.
Managing director Helen Logas told Travel Today that suitable appointment matching software had been difficult to source so the company had developed its own. But despite testing it in a closed environment, teething troubles developed during the event, held in Sydney this week.
While pre-booked appointments had run smoothly, staff had to resort to manually adding additional appointments.
“They’ve been working really long and hard,” Logas said. “And we’re committed to ironing the issues out for next year.”
She was confident the malfunction would not impact the success of the event, which was held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
“These are business people, and they know that year one of any new business will have teething issues,” she said.
However, some exhibitors were left frustrated, both by the number of appointments and the expense of attending, with a booth estimated to cost up to $10,000.
However, the quality of buyers and their ratio to exhibitors was said to be strong.
Meanwhile, Logas said she was determined to attract more than this year’s 108 suppliers to the 2013 event.
“We need more people to make a profit,” she admitted, although this year’s event had “come close” to going into the black.
“A lot of people are waiting in the wings to see how it goes,” Logas said, adding global economic uncertainty had also played a role.
One disappointment for organisers was the absence of Tourism Australia as an exhibitor while fewer states than hoped had participated in a famil program.
Logas said she was optimistic more tourism bodies would get involved next year.
Tourism Australia representatives visited the event yesterday
“We wanted to see how it went in its first year, including taking a closer look at the buyer and seller profile to establish whether it offered a point of difference and some ‘value-add’ for Tourism Australia,” a spokesperson said. “The feedback was certainly positive and we are looking at how we can get more involved in the event next year.”
