Your Child Expo goes bust, organiser liquidated

8 Mar 2010

Egg Marketing, the organisers of Your Child Expo, scheduled for the end of March 2010 in Cape Town, has announced the cancellation of the exhibition and the voluntary liquidation of its company. It says these moves are due to late or non-payment by many of its exhibitors, sponsors and partners, as well as failure by some brand partners to honour their agreements.

Transferring to Kids Indaba

The company has contacted Three City Events, with a view to transferring the paid exhibitors and existing partners to the Kids Indaba expo, scheduled later this year. The Kids Indaba aimed at the same market, premières in Durban on 19-22 March 2010 and will roll out to four other cities during 2010.

Natalie Naude, Kids Indaba's show director, commented, "We have put an offer on the table for Egg's exhibitors, which we will honour in trying to accommodate them into our expos. It is a very sad day in the industry when something like this happens and the resultant negativity is hard for the organiser and for all in the industry who work exceptionally hard over many years to produce excellent exhibitions, benefiting both exhibitors and visitors. This move is about salvaging what we can for the people who make our industry work - our clients, the exhibitors."

EXSA comment

Newly appointed EXSA chair, Natalie Naude, said that the cancellation of the event and closing of the company comes as a shock, as on all fronts it seemed as if this expo had much potential.

Sue Gannon, GM of EXSA, said that Egg Marketing was a new member of the association and that in the light of this, it is seen as a poor reflection on the exhibition and events industry. EXSA is actively looking into ways to protect the exhibitor via possibly making sure organisers take out insurance similar to estate agents, to protect its clients.

"The association is there to protect its members, as well as the exhibitors and visitors to our exhibitions and events, and with this year being so important for South Africa with the world's eyes looking at us, professional business practice is this industry is key," says Gannon.

Updated 8 March 2010 at 10.47pm