T he Showman’s Show was held at the familiar location of Newbury Showground on 16th and 17th October 2019. With manufacturers, suppliers, production and event management companies exhibiting, it’s certainly the show to keep in your calendar if you want to check out what’s new in the exciting world of party & events.
We’ve received great feedback from exhibitors and visitors alike. Numbers were significantly up on the Thursday from the previous year, delivering a fabulous second day and ending the show on a real high!
Jeremy Lance, Co-event Director
We noticed that there was more effort being made to create innovative and sustainable solutions for the party and events industry around the show floor. Studies show that 88% of consumers now sway to businesses that create products or services that support social and environmental issues, so we checked out a few companies at the show that were doing just that.
Lapee
Having the slogan “No more endless toilet queues” instantly caught our eye. We all get frustrated in festival lines; from ordering drinks, to emptying bladders. It’s a vicious circle of queuing - especially for women. Lapee, a female urinal, improves gender equality by giving women the right to ‘go’ in a secure and clean environment. Creators Gina Périer and Alexander Egebjerg were festival goers with an innovative idea.
We wanted to create the female version of a product that exists all over the world. From an environmental perspective it was important to make a durable product, one that won't be broken in one season. This can last decades.
Gina Périer and Alexander Egebjerg
Lapee is made from recyclable polyethylene, a hard wearing plastic that is reusable. As well as being stackable - this aims to reduce carbon emissions during transportation. We weren’t surprised to hear that Lapee were runners up for the Green Supplier & Innovation Award. Lapee were a big hit, after delivering a fantastic presentation on sustainable solutions to a roomful of industry-leading festival organisers. Watch this space for a hot pink Lapee dropping into your next big festival!
KUBE
Our team at Showman’s saw KUBE by J&J Carter: a low-impact, two-story event structure set up with an open balcony, providing visitors with the best view of the Showman’s Show ground. KUBE is a fully customisable, relocatable and reusable structure, manufactured in the UK. It’s created from recycled and reusable materials sourcing locally and ethically. It also uses renewable energy resources like their very own solar panels to keep their carbon footprint down.
J&J Carter went above and beyond in their eco-friendly focus at Showmans by upcycling their spare bits of PVC from their structure into reusable bags for show visitors to take away with them. There has been a huge increase in demand in recent years for low-impact, sustainable event structures. It looks like KUBE ticks all of the boxes.
Festival Vision: 2025
Festival Vision: 2025 was created as part of The Show Must Go On report; a festival industry response to the 2015 global climate change talks in Paris. Following on from the success of January’s launch at the Festival Supplier Awards, Showman’s hosted the 3rd annual meeting for Festival Vision 2025.
With a shared vision, organisers gave visitors a chance to open up about the future of the festival industry and how it can achieve sustainability through innovative ideas. Speakers included suppliers such as Mike Whitehouse, MD at Power Logistics offering potential sustainable solutions like their bespoke power monitoring system, proven to reduce carbon emissions. Plus, there were talks from energy & waste expert Andy Willcott, Director of Critical Waste Ltd.
The Hub had full capacity from the outset, proving that The Showman’s Show is a great platform for bringing together the industry to discuss key issues like sustainability.
Johnny Lance, Event Director
‘A Greener Festival’ are heavily involved in the Festival Vision: 2025, doing their bit in helping festivals and events become more environmentally sustainable. They also run ‘The Greener Festival’ awards and have been helping festivals to have a greener approach for 13 years!
Read more on the Festival Vision 2025 pledge and the upcoming changes you might see in the festival industry.
Event in a tent
We caught up with Event in a Tent, a UK based customer of ours who’ve recently expanded into the US, with a new office in New York. Event in a Tent began in 2010. After struggling to find the perfect venue for their own wedding, they found their tipis! 10 years on, they now create perfect venues for not only weddings, but also businesses, festivals and parties across the globe!
It’s crucial for Event in a Tent to have a cloud-based solution, so quotes are accessible anywhere and can be dealt with straight away. After a trial with Current in 2015, they moved their business over to the cloud, which has not only reduced their carbon footprint, but it has helped keep their processes paperless with online quoting ability.
It’s great having a cloud-based quoting system as anyone can pick up a quote anywhere in the country on their phone. It's great keeping all conversations located with the customer so no emails are missed.
Nat, Events Co-ordinator
Displaying their newest 12m Timber Geodome, as well as Tipis, Stretch Tents and Geodome Stages at the show, Event in a Tent loved showcasing their newest products and hosting Stand Magazine’s networking drinks in their dome.
It was interesting to be an exhibitor rather than an attendee. We are launching a new product, so it was good to gauge the reaction of people as they walked in. Having the networking drinks was great in the evening, bringing a new atmosphere in the dome with it all lit up and full of exhibitors mingling.
Nat, Events Co-ordinator
Event in a Tent aim to keep their footprint as green as possible, from the construction of the tipis, to the day-to-day running of the company. The team are currently working towards becoming a carbon-neutral company.
The latest on Current RMS
Our team were on stand #49, catching up with our customers as well as making new connections. They also gave sneak peeks of our new and upcoming features:
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Purchasing
Create and store purchase orders, per supplier, for freelance crew, manual costs and sub-rentals. -
Temporary Containers
Allowing you to build up flight cases with serialised, bulk and non-stock products on a temporary basis. Simply scan the flight case to allocate the entire container on a job - great for your marquee and tent packages. -
Mobile Scanning App
The perfect warehouse companion that enables you to scan to allocate, prepare, book out and check-in using the in-built camera in your phone or tablet. -
Stock Check
A way to check exactly what equipment you hold, so you can see what you’ve acquired, any missing products and any discrepancies.
Here at Current, it’s important for us to push for a more sustainable business too. Using online systems for all communication and storage of our data; our aim is to be as paper-free as possible. Our merchandise is also great for our carbon footprint, including our branded reusable water bottles and on-the-go coffee cups. You’ll be able to pick one of these up when you visit us at our upcoming shows! Being a cloud-based system is definitely greener too - saving up to 84% of energy compared to hosting and maintaining your own servers. Amazon Web Services who host the servers that run Current also have long-term goals to be 100% reliant on renewable energy.
Inspired to go greener?
Want to do your bit to drive the rental industry to be greener than ever before? Check out our blog It’s got top tips on how to be more efficient and sustainable in the workplace; whether that’s in the warehouse, the office, or even on the road. Want to see how working in the cloud can reduce your carbon footprint?
Try our free 30 day trial of Current RMS and create your very own system, helping you achieve a paperless workflow! Plus book in a free online demo with one of our friendly team so they can walk you through the system.
