GGP 2020, Great in Green, an opportunity in a threatening time

The board and fair management took their time to come to a well-weighted judgment. From September 30 to October 2, GrootGroenPlus 2020 will not be a physical, but a broad digital platform. Registrations and deposits will move on to the physical edition from October 6 to 8, 2021. Thus, for exhibitors in 2020, there are no costs associated with the expanded digital participation.

The situation surrounding Covid-19 creates uncertainty and ambiguity, especially in the trade show landscape. No one has a crystal ball. Even experts do not always agree. Although we initially wanted to wait until September 1 before making our decision, we now believe we have enough information and insight to make an informed decision now.

Pandemic

At GrootGroenPlus, we stated from the very beginning that we did not want to take a gamble in any way with the health of people involved in GGP. As the prospects became increasingly positive, we decided to go ahead with preparations for both a physical and digital fair. This was possible in part due to the involvement of our participants and suppliers.

Feasibility

We do not rule out that Covid-19 will also lead to a rescheduling of participation in and attendance at trade shows in the coming years. This year, the physical continuation depended on the outbreaks of the virus in our region, the locations of our suppliers and participants as well as our visitors. In short: the international (arboricultural) world. Another factor was obtaining the necessary permit. For this we were dependent on the government and the applicable protocols. The time we took to weigh our decision made it clear that we would have been ready. Covid-19 and security require adjustments and flexibility, but we don't foresee any problems in that.

Where we do see them is with the recently introduced rule that the occurrence of infections can lead to a closure of up to 14 days. This can cause problems during set-up and exhibition days. Although we assume that everyone will abide by the rules, there are still many people involved and therefore companies and volunteer organizations. We have come to the conclusion that we do not consider it responsible to take on such uninsurable risks with funds from our sector. Moreover, the basic rules in most countries are still; work at home as much as possible, avoid crowds.

Commercial opportunities

In addition, our platform was created to add value in seizing commercial opportunities in the arboriculture sector. The current corona crisis is a threat to our sales. The tree cultivation sector is used to dealing with threats and has a good recovery capacity to cope with problems on its own. That was also our motivation to make an ultimate effort and pursue two roads side by side. In recent weeks, everyone has seen that the expectation of a second wave of corona blight in the fall of 2020 has been adjusted by experts and will probably occur much sooner.

This observation also made us question the desirability of a physical platform. Moreover, further adjusting our plans could result in the characteristic atmosphere of GGP coming under high pressure and that it would no longer be possible to establish the quality we desired.

Widening of walkways, one-way traffic, splitting of streams of people, time locks for visitors, extra shuttles, passing places, 100 seats and supervisors could be assigned according to the protocol, among other things, by adjusting the accommodation. We will of course take this knowledge, skill and experience with us to the 31e edition in 2021 and to Groenbeurs Zundert, which we are organizing on January 20 and 21, 2021, and whose registration forms are already open.

However, the increasing number of infections in our immediate region and around the world, combined with the newly introduced measures, is creating potential problems in set-up, hesitation and travel bans among participants and visitors, and therefore a further necessary curtailment in the number of participants and visitors. This obviously affects budgets and appearance.

Visitors

The recently opened visitor and press registration was an additional gauge for us to gauge visitor sentiment. We can be clear about this: the number of people already indicating that they definitely want to come is seriously lagging behind that of previous years. We can guess the reasons behind this, but it is very likely that it has to do with the uncertainty. Disappointing exhibition results and a poorer image can lead to participants and visitors dropping out in later years. Apart from the risks involved in closing the fair and canceling it due to outbreaks, this is also undesirable.

If we then weigh all the pros and cons to continue physically, we can't help but conclude that we will continue registrations for this year's edition from October 6 to 8, 2021 as well as provide a (free) wide digital platform as a service to registrants this year. We are prepared for the one-half-meter society and we have many opportunities for a good digital program that can be attended without measures and obstacles.

Communication Plan

In making our decision public, we chose to take the only right route in this. First, those who have put their trust in us and gone with us on the path we have taken, including the 150 participants and 31 suppliers. Then everyone else for whom it matters. Our two-track policy and the double work to that end, thanks in part to them, ensured that we had the leeway to postpone any cancellation for as long as possible.

Had the positivity of early summer continued, we could now have moved on to placing the appropriate orders. We have to invest in 2020 anyway; we have now done so in the 2021 physical fair and the 2020 digital options. Future

Over the next six weeks, we will be coming out with more information, features and details about the digital scholarship days.

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