International Fair of Amber, Jewellery and Gemstones Amberif celebrates this year its 15th anniversary. Ewa Rachon, the Fair's commissar, tells about previous achievements and plans for the future.
The Amberif Fair has been organized for 15 years already – will this anniversary be celebrated and how?
The greatest gift for the 15th anniversary of the Amberif Fair is a new hall – admittedly erecting of this hall took a few months but the preparations themselves and deliberations on the question if this hall should be erected on old or new fair premises took a few years. Telling you the truth it is still not the hall of our dreams, nevertheless it provides the exhibitors with better conditions. That is why we do hope that despite everything the companies will feel good there. But above other things this anniversary induces to reflect on passing time and to chart aims for the next 5 years. The previous 15 years constituted a very intensive period in the business activity and development of the companies which have taken part in the fair but also in the whole amber trade since the very beginning. Especially the previous 5-6 years is a period of time when some important dreams of the amber circle have begun to come true, thanks to which Gdansk can be called the World Amber Capital, for example founding the Museum of Amber or the Workshop of Jewellery Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. This is also the period during which the authorities of the city and region accepted amber as a flagship of Gdansk and Pomerania, and they provided such necessary support.
Will this new hall satisfy the exhibitors’ needs?
Unfortunately we have again disappointed the exhibitors representing machine-equipment sector – the project of the new hall was drawn up especially for them, meanwhile after consulting they are the ones who are going to remain in the tent. At the beginning we visualized a plan of this new hall in a bit different way but it turned out that the tent had to stay. In such temporary conditions it is easier to exhibit machines than jewellery – the exhibitors from the jewellery sector, who will present their offer in a new hall marked with number 3, have appreciated an improvement of conditions and they enter themselves for the participation in the Fair more willingly and in a greater number.
They say, however enigmatically, about a modern fair hall at the target Fair’s premises?
Undoubtedly this will be the biggest challenge for the Fair’s management for the next 5 years. There is a chance that together with building a stadium for Euro 2012 there will be built a target exhibition centre, so maybe we will celebrate the 20
th anniversary of the Amberif in a modern complex at new Fair’s premises.
What are the moods 2 months before the Amberif Fair while facing a financial crisis in the USA and a drastic increase of the prices of materials?
The beginning of the year is always a period of increased nervous tension and let’s call it after Christmas numbness. There are no real data on the basis of which it could be stated for sure what we can expects at the Amberif. Nevertheless we observe what is happening at international fairs, which are held in January and February, and we try to draw conclusions. Current situation on the American market and a decrease of the value of dollar will undoubtedly affect the atmosphere of talking and negotiating during the Fair. Like always one of the best solutions in difficult situations is escaping forward so the producers should prepare even better offer, more attractive in designer and quality aspects – such offer will always find buyers and will constitute a good justification for possible increase of prices.
Does this perceptible anxiety reflect in any way in the number of exhibitors?
For many years there has been a growing interest in the Fair and I hope that it results from positive expectations and plans towards the Fair and is not a last resort in a situation of a crisis. More than 450 exhibitors have signed up for the next edition so there will be more of them than in 2007.
Similarly to last year the Amberif’08 Fair is going to last 5 days – is it still a “test stage” or is it a final decision of the organizer?
All decisions concerning the Amberif are to provide benefit for the exhibitors and the visitors and to favour its general development. Our task is to look for such solutions which portend well for the future – this is the aim of a decision about prolonging the Fair. The merchants’ survey forms from the previous years show that they have too little time for getting to know the exhibitors’ offer – and it should not be surprising as there are more than 260 exhibitors in the amber sector itself. Failing to check this signal would be perceived as unwise. I am very grateful for the fact that last year we were given permission for 5 days and now I am asking for some more patience. We had signals from the marchants which confirmed that it had been a right decision. The exhibitors were a bit less happy but I do hope that eventually they will also find it profitable. We are testing this option because our aim is to set up strong basis for the development of the trade and the Fair, and the merchants are those who finally decide about its effectiveness. Another change that had had been asked for in the survey forms is a free Sunday and that is why the Fair stars on Tuesday 11
th March and finishes on Saturday 15
th March. After the Fair we are going to find out if it was a right decision.
In the day open for the public more and more exhibitors show cards with the words: “We do not do retail sales” and the merchants almost do not appear. Does not it constitute a sufficient reason to make this Fair available only for the trade members?
A part of the exhibitors anticipates retail sales, e.g. artistic jewellery designers, and we do not want to deprive them of that. The crucial factor is also the fact that the authorities of the city and region expect from us that this Fair will be available for the public. It should be also remembered that not only merchants are the carriers of information concerning the qualities of amber jewellery and Pomerania, being strongly connected with it, but also the region’s inhabitants and tourists. During the Amberif and the Ambermart you can see the beautiful objects made of amber. It cannot be fully admired at the St. Dominic’s Fair or in the galleries at Mariacka Street. That is also why the Museum of Amber is so popular: it contains historical objects and nature specimen and contemporary jewellery.
Has the Fair’s organizer taken any steps in order to improve the exhibitor’s security after last year’s theft of diamonds?
This is such trade in which I guess no one can feel secure in one hundred percent. As it comes to the last year’s incident it is difficult to call it a theft, rather a bequilement – the thieves had all the required guarantees. During this year’s Amberif we will have a system of entering and leaving control which will be more tight for sure but which at the beginning can cause some trouble for those who do not accept new rules of entering and leaving the fair’s halls. But I hope that in the name of increasing our common security these rules will get accepted.
