The Amberif fair will be shortened from five to four days and closed for a non-trade audience – these are the most important decisions of the Council of Consultants of Amberif. The meeting took place on 6th May.
 The most important decision is shortening Amberif to four days and closing it for a non-trade audience. It was made on the basis of surveys and sugestions of the consultants and trade organizations. Almost 80% of the exhibitors having been surveyed was for a four-day fair in a closed system. The exhibitors stated in their comments that on the fifth day many important merchants were absent and a crowd and large amount of people not connected with the trade only increased a danger of theft. An alternative for all the amber lovers is to be the Ambermart fair in autumn, which is smaller and it is certainly easier to provide security during it. The president of the fair also announced that a next year’s edition of Amberif will keep the same price level. The organizer also pledged to take up talks with the police and the city’s representatives concerning a possibility to increase a security level not only at the fair but also outside. This and last year’s experiences show that it is essential.
New fair premises
The chairman of the Gdansk International Fair Co. officially announced that they plan to move the fair to new premises – it will be situated in the vicinity of the Baltic Arena stadium in the Gdansk district of Letnica. This moving is preliminary planned for 2012. Until then it will be necessary to use the premises at Beniowskiego Street. The new fair premises will be situated in a very good part of the city as it comes to transport (a line of the Fast City Train, a tram, a convenient interchange – there are plans to build an exit in the direction of Warsaw and a southern ring road). This place will also have a huge car park near the stadium.
The Control Committee work results
During the meeting Wieslaw Gierlowski presented the results of the work of the Control Committee which at the fair checked authenticity of the Baltic amber in use and a correct labelling of pressed amber. It was made randomly and on the basis of suggestions. The samples taken for spectral analysis in IRS did not show any fakes. The Committee, apart from very minor incidents, provided a positive assessment of this year’s Amberif.
Survey
The fair’s organizer also presented the results of the survey conducted among the exhibitors. According to Ewa Rachon, the fair’s commissar, a response is quite good as out of 500 exhibitors 100 filled in the questionnaire and sent it back. 80% was for shortening and closing the fair for the audience. 62% of the exhibitors assessed a number of customers visiting their stall as satisfying, large and very large, 38% were not satisfied. The buyers from Poland constituted 28%, other EU countries 29%, European countries outside the Union approximately 8% whereas from North America more than 12%. A presence of buyers from Asia (8%) and Australia (8%) was similar, the exhibitors noticed also buyers from Africa and South and Central America.
Foreign buyers predominated in the surveys of the exhibitors from the amber halls. More than 80% of the respondents assessed organizational and technical service before the fair as good or very good. Almost 90% thought that the technical service during the fair was good or very good.
A very important issue, having been raised for many years, is security. After unpleasant experiences from the previous years the Gdansk International Fair Co. increased a level of protection which was reflected in the surveys. 95% of the respondents assessed security as good or very good and only 5% as unsatisfying. 47% of the respondents assessed a number of parking spaces as unsatisfying, 53% assessed it in a positive way. This year there has been opened a new car park about 300 m from the fair’s premises (on a sports field of a nearby school) – it had free places during all the fair, but for a definite improvement we have to wait till the fair will be moved to the new premises. 2008-05-21 | 
