Spring Fair 2022 - Part 2
Spring Fair is an annual B2B (Business to Business) trade show in the UK, where many thousands of visitors attend to source and buy new products for their shops, stores and studio's. Each year I have the honour to designs and create the window displays for the Qualatex stand.
In Part 1, of this two part post, I walked through each of the window displays that I created, as well as the products and colours of balloons that I used. If you missed it - check it out HERE.
I would now like to take this opportunity to show you around the rest of the stand.
There was a seasonal display on each of the corners, and I was asked to create the Autumn display with a wedding theme. I chose to make an organic display - see below.
I really enjoyed making this organic Column design with the gorgeous dried grasses and leaves arrangement as the focal point! The colour palette I created was a 'nude' tone theme, made from a selection of double-stuffed balloons. These are the latex balloons that I used.
Qualatex
The next corner represents Summer and was created by Alberto Falcone, CBA.
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| Albert created an organic garland that wrapped around the front of the stand. |
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| Organic Garland created by Alberto Falcone, CBA. |
For Spring, Alberto created a display that incorporated a Mother's Day theme. He created a beautiful vase working with 6" Navy QuickLink balloons, with 5" Pearl Pink and 260Q Chrome Gold. The vase was filled with the new 26" Pink Watercolour Rose Microfoiland the 18" Mother's Day Pink & Blue Rose Microfoil.
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| Mother's Day Vase and Flowers by Alberto Falcone |
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| Here is a close-up of the fantastic lattice work that Alberto used to create the vase. |
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| 18" Mother's Day Pink & Blue Rose #21547 |
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| 26" Pink Watercolour Rose #21577 |
The final corner was a display for winter, and Alberto once again created a work of art!
He designed a stack of Christmas gift boxes (made from Qualatex Chrome balloons) to form an artistic tree! Each box had a beautiful Chrome Gold 260Q bow. He added Metallic Gold Stars in varying sizes as well as the wonderful Gnome balloon in both the 42" and 14" sizes.
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| Christmas Gift Tree display by Alberto Falcone. |
We always want to ensure that everyone knows exactly where Qualatex is located in the hall (include those of us who work on the stand)! This year, Alberto created giant abstract Topiary arrangements that measured 3 meters wide made out of twelve 3ft Qualatex balloons that floated high above the stand. It created such a powerful statement!
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| 3m Topiary created by Alberto Falcone |
One of the highlights of the Qualatex stand is always the Educations centre. This year Keith Stirman, CBA, Dominic Cassidy, CBA, Alberto Falcone and myself were on hand to show visitors new design ideas, balloon skills and techniques throughout the day.
Jacqui Young of Classic Balloon Decor, Glasgow, Scotland, commented:
"This year was strange as the party section was so small. It was however a relief to see the Pioneer stand with all of the window displays and new products. As always I enjoyed the demonstrations but it was a bit of a squeeze and it was on not a staged area with seats. I think that it is more of a COVID precaution but it was always good to sit and watch and take notes, not to mention giving your feet a rest 😜.
It’s also a good opportunity to check in and say hello to Sue and John as well as Keith and Dom and Kerry.
Overall I go to Spring fair to keep up-to-date with the latest products and trends and to catch up with my balloon friends. I think it’s great to see you guys there to touch base and connect with the products. While online is great you can’t beat talking to real people and seeing everything in real life. It makes a huge difference. I’ve come back knowing what’s coming, and about new products. I’ve been energised on the way I can use the products. Unfortunately, for the companies who didn’t show I have nothing. Nothing to see. Nothing to talk about. Nothing to build on. Well done Qualatex!"
First time Spring Fair visitor Lynda Webb comments
"This was my first visit to spring fair and I loved it, I spent most of the day on the Qualatex stand, and as we were only there for one day we missed so much of the show! Next time we will stay over and see a little bit more!
I loved watching the live demonstrations and being able to ask questions. I got to meet and spend time with a lot of the Qualatex team. Julie Dunham, who was one of the teachers on my virtual fundamentals course, showed me around the entire stand and introduced me to others. Kerry Ferguson spent some time with us and explained how to avoid holes in bubbles when helium inflating. (This will be so valuable)! Debbie Magill showed us some of the new balloon designs for this year. Keith and Dom sat down and even gave me a recipe for an arch that I’ve seen on a few Qualatex videos! I’m super excited to give that a go! It was amazing to meet Alberto who also taught at my fundamentals, watching him create some amazing designs with the super stuffer!
And of course the amazing Sue Bowler whose demonstrations and advice were brilliant ❤️ It was so good to get hands on and try the things demonstrated, particularly the 160Q sausage flowers! Everything was such good fun and we met many balloon friends some for the first time at the Qualatex stand.The balloon topiary above the stand was perfect for finding your way back! Brilliant day 🎈🎈"Lynda Webb of Bloon Away Boston in Lincolnshire, UK.
Here are a few more photographs showing some of the other displays from the show.
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| This QuickLink Arch made by Keith Stirman and Dominic Cassidy proved to be very popular, and the perfect design for celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. There will be many street parties and events across the UK and Commonwealth. |
If you missed the show this year, you should note next year's show dates now to avoid missing it again! We always look forward to meeting up with both existing and new customer!
The dates for the 2023 Spring Fair have now been announced:
5-8 February 2023 - NEC Birmingham, B40 1NT, UK
Sunday, 5 February | 9:00 - 18:00
Monday, 6 February | 9:00 - 18:00
Tuesday, 7 February | 9:00 - 18:00
Wednesday, 8 February | 9:00 - 16:00
And finally, if you would like a look around the stand with Keith & Dom, check out their videos below:
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