PSI Show Dusseldorf, January 2008

For the BizGift industry in Europe and in the US every year starts with a bang with the respective biggest industry trade shows of the year. The second week of January the European BizGift who is whos make their way to Dusseldorf for the annual PSI Fair. This year it was the 46th edition and it was 6th time for me to visit.

PSI Fair is closed event, for members of PSI only. That makes is an exclusive event for the promotional product industry. This is the opportunity for the big players to display their new lines for the coming year, introduce new catalogs, meet with the existing clients and find some new ones. For the visitors it is one of the last opportunities to select some new items to carry in their 2008 lines. Most of the companies that come to PSI Fair as buyers would close their 2008/2009 product selection during the early weeks of the year.

Who are the exhibitors at the PSI Fair ? Of course those looking out to sell all over Europe, but there are several types of companies. The big guns that pretty much set the trends, holding huge stocks of full range of promotional merchandise (imported mostly from Far East). Another group are European manufacturers (yes, there still is stuff produced in Europe, more on that in some future posts) presenting their own product line. Other major group of exhibitors are companies that specialize in selected product ranges. And then those in between these 3 groups.

What trends did I spot at the PSI Fair this time ? Well, it was quite obvious that 2008 is again the year of football (the one with the round ball, soccer). EURO 2008 will be held later this year and so there were many football related products and product collections. The colours of the 16 countries taking part in the competition were everywhere I looked.

The current wave of environmental consciousness made it to the BizGift industry too. The “green” products like vegetal and corn pens, garments made of bamboo were all over the place. How is T-shirt made of bamboo more Earth friendly then T-shirt made of cotton, that I can’t tell.

In the wearables there is obvious further shift towards the higher end products, whether these are T-shirts, shirts or jackets. Cheap no name garments were almost impossible to find.

And while there is still big demand for low budget promotional products, there is more and more emphasize on brand name higher end high quality goods, whether it is for give away purpose or as a business gift.

As most of the other fairs, PSI Fair is also an important networking event. Many exhibitor booths look like hospitality centers with food, drinks and yes… booze in large quantities. And if there is not enough time for proper networking on the site, there are parties in the evenings. Either the official ones organized by some of the exhibitors, or the not so official one but attended by everybody every year on Thursday night (Friday morning) in one of the downtown clubs in Dusseldorf.

Here are few more pictures from the 46th PSI Show in Dusseldorf

The report from the PPAI Show in Las Vegas is coming next.

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