Following its hugely successful beta trial at Autumn Fair in September, Curated Meetings will be officially launched at Spring Fair (February 7-8 2022, NEC Birmingham). The programme will include buyers and suppliers from the Kitchen, Dining and Housewares sectors.
Curated Meetings are short, pre-scheduled 1:1 appointments between vetted buyers and relevant brands based on mutual interest to drive new business opportunities together. These appointments take place in a dedicated Curated Meetings Lounge, ensuring uninterrupted conversations along with complimentary food and drink. At the Autumn Fair trial, Curated Meetings delivered over 300 face-to-face, time-efficient meetings lasting 15 minutes generating thousands of pounds of business.
The Curated Meetings team has doubled for Spring Fair, and the programme now includes brands across all sectors including home. Buyers will ‘supercharge’ their sourcing by pre-scheduling the new brands they want to meet with and benefit from a £250 travel expense subsidy.
“Mutual matching sets Curated Meetings apart – it’s not networking, it’s not speed-dating; meetings only happen when buyers and brands mutually express interest to explore new business together,” emphasises Monica Todd, product manager, Curated Meetings. “Our bespoke platform is made for turning product interest into meaningful face-to-face new business conversations. The buyers are high quality, decision makers vetted for purchase responsibility and budget spend – averaging £330k in buying power – across a range of retail types including online, multi-store independents and large retail chains.”
Monica sums up: “Curated Meetings is an exciting and innovative way of doing new business which very much complements the rest of the Spring Fair.”
To maximise business opportunities, brands are not required to exhibit at Spring Fair to take part in Curated Meetings. Housewares suppliers can arrange a minimum of 10 focused 15-minute conversations with active buyers, pre-screened for meaningful budget, purchase responsibility and interest in their products.
Some 72% of brands taking part in Curated Meetings at Autumn Fair had orders placed on the spot or within three weeks, and 100% of buyers surveyed expressed satisfaction with the programme.
Lex Clarke, from gift and housewares retailer Fy! reflects on his experience: “One word to describe Curated Meetings – engaging. I’ve actually been able to speak more and go into more detail with brands than I normally would when walking the show. On both sides, we probably had time to think about what we want to ask next rather than feel like we should get off the stand to make space for someone else.”
Brands and buyers are invited to sign-up for Curated Meetings before December 7 to facilitate the mutual matching process.
Interested brands and buyers can arrange a Calendly call with a member of the Curated Meetings team at www.calendly.com/victoria-linstone/chat
The team is also holding two webinars today (Thursday November 25):
Supercharge your Sourcing Experience Retailers & Buyers Webinar, 11am GMT
Registration link: www.bigmarker.com/hyve/Supercharge-your-Sourcing-Experience-with-Curated-Meetings
and
Accelerate New Business with Curated Meetings for Brands Webinar – 2pm GMT
Registration link: www.bigmarker.com/hyve/Accelerate-New-Business-with-Curated-Meetings
* For further information please visit www.springfair.com/cm
Top: The dedicated Curated Meetings Lounge at the Autumn Fair trial.
