‘Barefoot’ luxury travel tradeshow debuts in Bali in November

A new luxury travel tradeshow, Further East, to be held in Bali in November, asks buyers and sellers to “shake off your shoes and your tradeshow perceptions”.

If it wasn’t for Serge Dive who is launching it, that notion of a ‘barefoot’ show might be dismissed as just a gimmick. Dive created ILTM Cannes, sold it to Reed Exhibitions, and later went on to launch his own shows Pure Life Experiences, LE Miami, We Are Africa, and now, Further East.

Buyers interviewed show he seems to have built a cult following for being ‘un’ everything a traditional tradeshow is.

“We participated in the first Pure Life Experiences in Marrakech in 2009 and have attended every one since,” said Hamish Keith, group managing director of Bangkok-based Exo Travel. “Serge’s vision of a ‘un-conference’ and a different kind of tradeshow focused on experiential travel coincides with Exo’s vision of fusing active and experiential travel in exotic and emerging Asian destinations. I really like and respect that Pure remains focused on its principles and has not grown into a big mainstream tradeshow, and I trust Serge and his team to deliver another great event with Further East.”

The new event will be held from November 12 to 15 in Seminyak, Bali’s hip and happening upscale resort destination, at Alila Hotel and Potato Head/Katamama next door.

So will the tradeshow be held on sand with barefoot buyers in bohemian wear strolling to their next appointment?

Dive, CEO of London-based Beyond Luxury Media, in a phone interview, said it won’t be on sand on the beach, but it would be the closest buyers and sellers could get to a barefoot luxury show. Appointments would be held in an indoor space at Alila, but bin the picture of a traditional mart in a convention hall, he said.

“I can’t tell you how the space would be dressed up, but everything we do is custom-made, and people will get a sense of the sea. When they go out to the networking area on the lawn facing the beach, we would encourage them to go barefoot,” said Dive.

The conference component, Awaken, will be held outdoors at Potato Head Beach Club. “Forget awful coffee, cold air-conditioned room, boring speakers, death by Powerpoint. It’ll be a mix of keynote, fast presentations, workshops, discussions. We want to create more conversations with the audience,” he said.

Dive has a mission for every show he creates. We Are Africa, for instance, aims to rebrand Africa travel as modern, positive and contemporary. Further East aspires to be the guardian of Asian values, he said.

“We realise that Asia is becoming the place more people want to go, because Asia has everything that the Western world has lost – spirituality, not necessarily in the religious sense, balance, social responsibility, self-respect and respect for others, great respect for heritage while putting itself into the future.

“At the same time, Asian brands and products are at an interesting crossroads where they could be tempted to embrace much of values of the Western world,” said Dive.

Further East can be the guardian by bringing forth the uniqueness of Asia through having the right cast of sellers – high-end, boutique, iconic, above all, uniquely Asian, he said. Once the casting is right, the discerning buyers would follow, he added.

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