The Fair, Which Ended Before It Began!

* The withdrawal of some companies at the last minute had a negative effect on the fair.

* The rationale for giving space for a car company in a sectoral fair was not clearly understood.

* The visitor profile in the fair was predominantly composed of students and Middle Eastern buyers.

* The fair was lack of effective promotion

* The idea is good, but no necessary effort has been made.

Stone Design Show Antalya, which has started as a beautiful and different idea at the beginning, could not meet the expectations of the sector. Due to the disputes experienced within the institution, many marble producer companies and architects decided to withdraw from the fair at the last minute. This decision decreased the number of exhibitors and the visitors decreased by half.

The cancellations that took place in the last minute, have seriously wound up the spirit of the fair. Some of the companies we interviewed expressed that they were disappointed as they could not come together with architects and project practitioners in the fair and they claimed that the fair could not reach its target. They also expressed that they could make hot sales for the first time in a long time.

Last Minute Cancellations

Stone Design Show Antalya Project, Design, Application and Technology Fair was organized by Türkel Fair Organization Company with the support of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, Istanbul Mineral Exporters Association, Western Mediterranean Exporters Association, MADSİAD, Turkish Marble Mining Foundation, Antalya Interior Architects Chamber, between the dates of 18 – 21 October 2017 in Antalya Expo Center. Has the fair, which was said to make a difference compared to many fairs held until this time, made a difference? Yes, it has. What kind of difference was it? It made a difference in the unsatisfying number of visitors and participants, last minute cancellations, lack of sufficient exhibition space and by the mispronounced name of the fair in the opening speeches.

“It was Sabotage!”

Stone Design Show Antalya, which aims to bring marble companies together with designers and architects for the first time in Turkey, has only one architecture participant. The advisor of the fair, Assoc. Dr. Osman Arayıcı from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Faculty of Interior Architecture explained this situation with the following words: “Unfortunately, those who only do short-term calculations, who can not guide themselves and foresee the future, sabotaged this fair.”

Middle-Eastern buyers

Especially the natural stone sector, hoping to come together with prestigious architectural offices on the domestic market, could not found what it expected in this fair. There were not enough local visitors in the fair. Buyers mainly visited the fair from the Middle East. The fair officials stated that approximately 2,000 people, 220 of which were foreign purchasing committees, visited the fair.

“Companies did not show interest in presentations”

Architect Osman Arayıcı said: “We wanted to gather the leading figures of the sector with designers on a common platform. For this, we brought not only the purchasing delegations from abroad but also the important brands of the design world to Antalya. The world renowned designers, Italian designer Moreno Ratti, German innovator Sascha Peters, British architect Marcos Cruz, as well as Domestic Interior Architect Hakan Külahçı, Assoc. Prof. Ece Ceylan Baba, Interior Architect Engin Ürün, Interior Designer Gülden Şener made presentations. We made serious payments to the people we invited from abroad. These events were only relevant to the students. The industry has shown no interest in the presentations we made here. I told many friends to follow the presentations but even one person did not listen. We can not take a step further if the sectoral representatives don’t change their perspectives.”

Visionless People in the Sector

The Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Menderes Türel who delivered a speech at the opening of Stone Design Show said: “I would like to mention that I am always standing by this sector. The issue is not only to have underground richness but also to be able to transform it into a superficial richness. We should not only deal with the richness of the mines but also with processing marble with an artist’s sensitivity and sell it with our own brand. Unfortunately, we are having difficulty in telling this to those who are not in the global race, who have no international goals, and who are lack of vision. For this reason, the role of the private sector is more important in this issue. The private sector should design and build artistic and well designed houses and offices.”

We Should Create Added-Value

The Chairman of Turkish Marble Mining Foundation Ersoy Erol said that Turkey has made great progress in marble exports for the last 20 years and has entered among the top three marble exporting countries in the world. Erol said: “We are a little behind our rivals in our income per ton. At this point, the sector should process natural stone in a way to create added value and find new markets in which we can sell our products with high value. Our country will gain competitive advantage with the use of Turkish natural stone products in international projects.”