The battle for the heritage of the paddleEXPO seems to be in full swing.
After my interview with Stephan Bretthauer organizer of the Paddle Board Expo it didn’t take long until a few more self-appointed heirs of paddleEXPO appeared. First I became aware of the entry of a French SUP website, SUP-Passion, on a trade fair using the old paddleEXPO logo. (Which was changed in the meantime.) We were contacted by one of the publisher, who explained why the logo was only used as a headline for the news but not for the trade show itself. We were then made aware of the actual exhibition website:
The Paddle Sports Show
Location: Lyon in France
Duration: 5 days
Date: 28.9. bis 2.10.2021
Current situation: The publisher of SUP-Passion told that their were already had registrations for the fair. There will also be a SUP contest as part of the trade show. A cooperation with one of the German fair organizers is not intended.
One of our readers then drew our attention to another trade fair via Facebook.
Paddle Show 2021
Loctaion: Karlsruhe in Germany
Duration: 3 Tage
Date: 9.10 bis 11.10.2021
Current situation: No updates or statements.
The third member in the group, which we first heard about, would then be the one again as a reminder the:
Paddle Board Expo (PBX)
Location: Kassel in Germany
Duration: 3 Tage
Date: 23.9. bis 25.9.2021
Current situation: According to Stefan Bretthauer the organizer, Kassel is already well ahead with the trade fair and firmly believes in Kassel as being the best location.
Conclusion
We have three organizers, two of wich have told us that the continuation is in arrangement with the old fair, try to start something new. This is of course a great thing, because the industry needs a SUP dealer show.
But: Do we really need 3 of them within three weeks? Two of them in Germany? We at Stand Up Magazine seriously doubt that. In the end, only one of the three “applicants” will prevail. Hardly any dealer will register for all 3 fairs. It is difficult to predict which trade show this will be. But it will be the one that attracts the most visitors and makes the best offer to the dealers.
But what if a few dealers register for Lyon, a few for Kassel and a few more for Kalrsruhe? It might be a good idea for the larger manufacturers to come to an agreement with each other. Otherwise it would become very complicated for the visitors.
We will stay on the subject as always and will inform you as soon as we know more.