As the first International Jewellery Fair (IJF) in Sydney for three years approaches, it’s important to note that COVID-19 has caused some changes in the Australian events industry.
Gary Fitz-Roy, managing director Expertise Events said that new security protocols are in place as a result of the global pandemic.
“As an events organiser we are required to abide by government regulations which means that all visitors – regardless of whether you have attended before – must re-register for the Sydney jewellery fair. It’s out of our control,” Fitz-Roy explained.
“We have made it very easy to register online for this year’s show. It will only take one minute on the IJF website, and it might save you a lot compared to registering on the day.”
He encouraged everyone to visit the website to register in advance.
This year’s event will be the first since 2019 at which international suppliers have been able to exhibit in Australia.
There are more than 140 companies exhibiting at the Darling Harbour event and “28 percent of our exhibitors are new. They have never exhibited before,” Fitz-Roy said.
“Better still, we have great support from Australia’s three leading buying groups, Nationwide, IJC [Independent Jewellers Collective] and Leading Edge. There have been more than 400 registrations from them alone.”
Retail strategist, Debra Templar, will host six seminars across the Saturday and Sunday which will cover topics such as, 30 ideas to increase your sales, apps and hacks for small business, the new retail ‘norm’ and product buying skills.
For those with questions about COVID-19, Fitz-Roy explained that Expertise Events is compliant with all practices as required by the State government.
The key COVID-19 Safe measures include:
- Pre-registration of attendees along with checking in of attendees to ensure everyone is tracked
- Updated layout to enable increased physical distancing and ‘air flow’
- Where required, the implementation of COVID-19 marshals
- Physically distanced queuing systems
- Set ‘entry’ and ‘exit’ points monitored by COVID-19 marshals
- Capped number of people at any one time within the venue, in accordance with the State government requirements
- Increased venue cleaning including pre-event, during and post event cleaning by trained hygiene officers with particular emphasis on high touch points
For more information about COVID-19 Safe practices, information on who can attend the IJF and an exhibitors list, visit here.
If you haven’t already registered online to save time, you can do so here.
