The ARB show, organized by the Arboricultural Association, will this year for the first time ever be a part of the APF show. This means that the two largest arboricultural shows in the UK joins forces. The organizers promise that all the usual features of both shows will be there. We have seen this before …
APF 2022 joins forces with the ARB Show
“We’re thrilled to announce this new partnership; we’re excited to have the AA on board and are committed to making this a fantastic industry event. The Arboricultural Association is one of the leading organizations in the Arb world, so we are pleased to have this opportunity to build a stronger partnership and see it as part of the natural evolution of the APF Exhibition. Exhibitors will now benefit by have a very targeted audience at one venue,” says APF Exhibition Secretary Ian Millward.
Arboricultural Association CEO John Parker echoed those sentiments: “This is fantastic news for arborists. ARB Show has been a highlight of the event calendar for more than twenty years, and after two years of virtual events we are delighted to be able to announce this collaboration with APF 2022, bringing the show to a greater audience than ever before. Attendees and exhibitors will benefit from this change, and we feel certain that the whole arboricultural profession will be out in force to celebrate the return of ARB Show in 2022.”
Here is a press release about the merge from the Arboricultural Association. 
2022 – the comeback of the trade shows?
It´s still exciting, especially for trade show organizers. Will it or will it not be restrictions etc.? Will we have to postpone again? In April 2021 I asked if there will ever be any forestry shows again. Of course, there will be. But when, and how?
That two of the major shows in the UK team up is a sign that something has changed. And they are not the only ones. In June 2021 it was announced that the two major forestry shows in Sweden, Elmia Wood 2022 and Skogs Nolia 2023, “will be carried out in collaboration”. So far it´s however unclear what the collaboration will look like.
Also in Germany, we have seen such a collaboration as the Interforst and the DLG Waldtage joins forces.
Will it ever be the same?
There is no doubt that the trade fairs organizers have had, and still have tough times. Not only have they had to postpone and cancel their shows. The exhibitors and visitors have discovered that they can survive without the shows. Sales of forest machines and other equipment have reached record levels during 2020 and 2021, without the shows. So, the search for new solutions and collaborations among the fair organizers is logical. The question is: Will it go back to how it was before the pandemic?
The exhibitors have learned new ways to approach their customers. On the other hand, the customers, the visitors of the shows, are people who spend most of their time alone in machines or with their chainsaws in the forest. They probably would like to meet both each other and their equipment suppliers. The forestry shows are the best opportunity to do that.
I´m quite sure that there will be forestry shows also in the future. Hopefully already this year. If not as soon as the pandemic is under control. But maybe they will have a more social than commercial function in the future.
