Curated Meetings will offer a platform for bespoke, highly pertinent and time efficient business meetings between buyers and brands.

According to Monica Todd, Curated Meetings product manager, “Curated Meetings is an exciting and innovative way of doing new business which very much complements the rest of the Spring Fair.”

Following its hugely successful beta trial at Autumn Fair in September, Curated Meetings is scaling up for its official launch at Spring Fair on the 7th – 8th February 2022 at NEC Birmingham, this time offering more space, more meetings and more sectors.

Curated Meetings are short, pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings between vetted buyers and relevant brands, based on mutual interest to drive new business opportunities together. Designed to offer a platform for bespoke, highly pertinent and time efficient business meetings between buyers and brands, Curated Meetings delivered over 300 15-minute face-to-face meetings at Autumn Fair, generating business and an incredible return on time for participants.

For Spring Fair, the Curated Meetings team has doubled and the programme now includes brands across all sectors.

Buyers will be able to pre-schedule the new brands they want to meet with, see the products up close and talk directly to business decision makers. They will also be able to enjoy a £250 travel expense subsidy, the Spring Fair halls filled with brands on show and attend presentations on the Inspiring Retail Stage. Meetings will take place in the private Curated Meetings Lounge, for uninterrupted conversations with complimentary food and drink.

“Mutual matching sets Curated Meetings apart. It’s not networking, it’s not speed-dating; meetings only happen when buyers and brands mutually express interest to explore new business together,” explained Monica Todd. “Our bespoke platform is made for turning product interest into meaningful, face-to-face, new business conversations. The buyers are high quality, decision makers, vetted for purchase responsibility and budget spend – averaging £330k in buying power – across a range of retail types including online, multi-store independents & large retail chains. The brands offer a wide range of product types, aesthetics and materials. We know from Autumn Fair how well it works and what the tangible benefits are to both buyers and brands. Extensive research from the Autumn Fair trial proved that new business can be done in 15 minutes and, conveniently located in the Midlands’ NEC Birmingham, buyers and brands from up and down the UK and internationally can now easily access three hours of highly curated meetings over two days at Spring Fair. ”

In a bid to open up new avenues of business and offer flexible buying opportunities, brands are not required to exhibit at Spring Fair in order to take part. They can arrange a minimum of 10 focused, 15-minute conversations with active buyers, pre-screened for meaningful budget, purchase responsibility and interest in their products to give every chance of placing orders. 72% of brands taking part in Curated Meetings at Autumn Fair had orders placed on the spot or within three weeks, and the trial showed huge benefits for growing brands with scalable production capabilities as well as established brands looking for expansion opportunities. 100% of buyers surveyed expressed satisfaction with Curated Meetings at Autumn Fair.

Independent retailer Lex Clarke commented: “I’ve been able to go into more detail with brands than I normally would when walking the show. On both sides, we probably had time to think about what we want to ask next rather than feel like we should get off the stand to make space for someone else.”

Kat Paterson-Brown, owner & designer, Lola & Blake, added: “I haven’t been interrupted by other people coming into the stands. I’ve had two meetings so far and I’ve had two orders, which is great … it’s just a more efficient use of time.”

Suppliers should sign up for Curated Meetings before December 7th to facilitate the mutual matching process and secure short, pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings with new buyers at Spring Fair.

Two Curated Meetings webinars will take place this week to provide more details, or readers can arrange a Calendly call with a member of the team by visiting  www.calendly.com/victoria-linstone/chat.

The webinars are:

• Supercharge your Sourcing Experience Retailers & Buyers  – Thursday, 25th November, 11am GMT. Register here.
• Accelerate New Business with Curated Meetings for Brands  – Thursday, 25th November, 2pm GMT. Register here.

For further information, visit www.springfair.com/cm.