IAADFS President Michael Payne spoke to TRBusiness on Tuesday, revealing that next year’s proposed joint ‘Summit of the Americas’ event is likely to be staged in Orlando in 2018 and possibly move to somewhere in Southern US after that. However, Payne says there is still a lot to work out.

 

“I’m pretty comfortable that that is what we are going to do just because…we’re contractually there…we could get out of it, but it’s probably smart to still use the facility,” Payne told TRBusiness. “I suppose there’s a small possibility that that could change, but I doubt it. It’s kind of late in the game to be grabbing new space for 3,000 people.”

 

As reported on Monday this week, South America’s duty free representative body, the Asociacion Sudamericana de Tiendas Libres (ASUTIL) and the International Association of Airport and Duty Free Stores (IAADFS) have agreed to integrate their events from March 2018.

 

Both parties confirmed the new collaborative partnership for their respective annual events on Monday, adding that during 2017 they will initiate a process to assess the elements and changes necessary to introduce a ‘Summit of the Americas’.

 

“One of the things I’m considering is alternating it. It could be in (Orlando) one year and then go somewhere else the next and then come back. There are lots of ways to slice this, but we have to make sure we are all on the same page.”

 

STAYING IN A WARMER CLIMATE

Payne says he doubts that either organisation would want to move the event to a North Eastern (US) location in March: “I mean I think we’ll try to keep it in a warmer climate. There are certainly places in Central America where we could conceivably do it…it would just require more time to plan.”

 

“Of course we want some input and conversation with our members…Both organisations have common buyers.”

 

In terms of the event’s format, Payne reveals that the new ‘Summit of the Americas’ will “probably have a trade show, but we probably won’t open it until later in the day on a couple of days, leaving the morning for conference sessions…or part of the mornings”.

 

“We have to figure out how we want to do that and work on the timing and we want to make sure people have the same number of good hours with high quality visitors,” he adds.

 

“We don’t want to take away from the trade show too much, but at the same time, we’re going to have much more enhanced educational opportunities for people.

 

THREE OR FOUR-DAY SHOW?

“So there are lots of ways to do that; you can do plenary sessions where everybody has to come and the hall is closed or you could do some breakouts and the hall will still be open.”

 

Payne doubts that the event will consist of a half-day of conference followed by the trade show. “We’ll have education sessions throughout the event,” he says.

 

In terms of the show length, Payne says there is still much to be discussed, but he conceded that it could be three and a half days long.

 

 

“It won’t be any less than three and we may need that fourth day, or part of it and we’ll decide that fairly quickly. So we’re still talking about that. It will likely still be in March or early April at least for the first couple of years.

 

“Part of what will happen will depend on what the Frontier Association (FDFA) does as well and so I can’t comment on that right now, but they are looking at revamping and changing their show.

 

“So we’ve got to knit that part of it together…so lots to be done, but all positive and good.”

 

INDUSTRY VOTES FOR SINGLE EVENT

Interestingly, in a poll conducted by TRBusiness as part of its Annual Survey 2017, over half of respondents said that they believed the IAADFS, ASUTIL and FDFA shows should be merged into one event.