Despite soft consumer attendance on the two Public Days, The Harvey Norman 2015 Expo held at the Melbourne Showgrounds last week was sleek, smart and by far the most sophisticated industry Expo ever mounted in Australia (believe me, I’ve been attending them for 20 years).
Leading brands such as Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sunbeam, Breville and Electrolux had invested substantially in the Expo. Dyson national field sales manager, George Kondrat described the Expo as “sensational” when Appliance Retailer (AR) appeared on his stand on Saturday morning .
“All the proprietors have been engaged and they have enjoyed themselves as well. We have showcased new product and our highlight was the Competition Room, where we were giving away a V6 Absolute.”
One of the ‘off Broadway” displays was mounted by Zip Industries and residential business manager Cliff Thompson told that the Expo was an important investment for the company.
“ I think that Harvey’s themselves would acknowledge that they probably didn’t get the numbers they were hoping for over the two days of the Public Expo.”
“Having said that, we were happy with the response from the public to our stand and the new Design range of HydroTaps, and the quality of the people attending was good.”
“The other good news from my perspective is that most people knew who we were and they were very excited to see that we now offer a wider choice in terms of design, and can see that we are heading in the right direction.”
Thompson congratulated both Nik Papa and Sean Dixon whom, he said “did a great job in terms of trying to get the most out of the public attending including doing a couple of live reads/crosses to our stand.”
Jura head of sales, George Liakatos has been a regular fixture at Harvey’s past Expo‘s along with other public events such as the national Good Food & Wine Shows.
“Traditionally, the Harvey Norman Conference is purely a trade event where suppliers are able to present their latest technology and products to Electrical franchisees. The decision to open this event to the general public was a great initiative and allowed brands such as ours to engage directly with consumers.”
“Considering the extreme weather in Melbourne this past week we were extremely happy with the outcome as we proved popular serving up hot drinks to warm up attendees,” he said.
Schweigen CEO, Anthony Fletcher agreed with Thompson and Liakatos that Harvey Norman held an extremely well planned public Expo.
“There were live demos and a large range of products for the consumer to watch, touch, and feel. Lots of giveaways and special pricing it was a great experience to attend,” he added.