04/06/2020
The correct decision
To all our loyal supporters, exhibitors, sponsors and visitors,
Following on from our announcement that the show was being postponed until August this year, we wanted to make contact with you all again to let you know how things stand currently and to thank you all for your patience and understanding.
As we are sure most of you are aware, the NEC is currently being used as a Nightingale hospital, all be it on standby. There is no current information available to us as to how long this will be the case for and whether it will impact on our postponed dates of 8th & 9th August 2020.
There is also a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the relaxation of the lockdown situation and how long this could take. There has been no mention by the Government yet, as to how soon they think it could be until mass gatherings, such as Makers Central, are allowed to resume.
As always, the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in Makers Central is our first priority and we need to be absolutely certain that the show can go ahead exactly as it is planned while ensuring that everyone can attend safely and with no risks to their health.
We understand that, even if mass gatherings are allowed again by August, there will be some people who are still unwilling to take any risks and attend a show so soon. This could obviously have a negative impact on footfall at the show and therefore the experience for everyone involved from exhibitors to visitors alike. Also, the Government are only just introducing a 14-day quarantine for visitors to the UK from overseas and we have no idea how long this will be in place. This will obviously impact our visitors and exhibitors from abroad and make it almost impossible for them to attend. The situation is far from ideal.
Ticket and stand sales have slowed to almost a stop due to the uncertainty of the virus and as to whether the show will go ahead. Because of this, we just cannot guarantee that the show would be a sellout success, as we’d hoped, and as it has been in previous years.
We are just 2 months out from our postponed date and it seems highly unlikely that everything will be back to normal by then. We understand that people will be wanting to make travel and accommodation plans very soon and felt it was only fair to make a decision now rather than wait until we get closer to the show.
Unfortunately, we have recently been informed that 1 of our major sponsors and a few big named exhibitors are now unable to attend the show in August, for their own reasons that it is not our place to disclose. The sponsors had a large stand space booked that we know visitors were excited to see and also, we are aware other exhibitors booked specific stands to be close to their feature stand. Them not being there would have a big impact on a lot of aspects of the show.
There have been many discussions with exhibitors, sponsors and staff as to what the best option would be. We looked at the potential of pushing the show back to November, but for many reasons, this just wasn’t viable. We have really struggled to decide what is best for the show and everyone involved, it’s been a very upsetting time. The uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak makes it almost impossible to know how best to respond. However, we have come to the decision that sadly, the show just can’t go ahead in 2020 and we feel we have no real option but to postpone until May 2021.
We have secured new dates with the NEC and the next Makers Central will be held on the 1st & 2nd May 2021.
We ask that we work together in these uncertain times as our focus is to try to keep this event alive and keeping hold of your tickets for the show in May 2021 will go a long way to making this happen. If you can’t make the postponed date in May 2021, tickets will remain valid for any Makers Central event in 2022. As with our original postponement, all tickets already purchased will remain valid for the show in May 2021 and any stands booked will also be honoured for the show next year. You don’t need to do anything. We have confirmed with the NEC that the same hall, Hall 9 is available for us so the map/layout for the show will remain unchanged.
We appreciate this will be extremely disappointing and trust us, we feel the same, but as we say the health and wellbeing of everyone involved has to be our priority and we also want to ensure we put on the best show and give everyone the best experience that we possibly can. We also want to ensure that people will feel confident and comfortable attending such a large gathering.
It is not a decision we have taken lightly, but by making the decision to postpone the show to May 2021, we hope that people will feel safe and secure and confident enough to continue to book tickets and stand spaces, to enable us to keep this show going. It gives us all time to ensure that things will no longer be impacted by Covid-19 and that Makers Central can get back to being the awesome show that we all know and love.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for being so supportive since our decision to postpone. We are a small team and are so passionate about this show, it’s great to hear you guys are too. The messages of support and understanding have been overwhelming and we can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. Our thoughts are with each and every one of you.
