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Adelaide Stampex 2010
– Another Successful Exhibition
By David
Figg, Treasurer, Adelaide Stampex 2010 Organising Committee
Adelaide Stampex 2010
has now concluded and by all accounts it was a resounding success.
Held on three days (20th to 22nd August) at the Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, King William Road, Adelaide,
it was a Half National Philatelic Exhibition, with Postal History
and Open being the main FIP classes on display. The remaining FIP classes had been on show at Canberra earlier in the year. The exhibition was organized by the South Australian Philatelic Council (SAPC).
The
Venue
The
Drill Hall on the Torrens Parade Ground, King William Road,
is well situated, being close to the CBD and all forms of public transport. The size of the venue is also ideal for Half
National Exhibitions, National One Frame Exhibitions plus State/Congress
Exhibitions and has now been used for all three in the last
three years. There is off- street parking and security of the
premises is state-of-the-art. Looking forward, the venue has
been tentatively booked for the last weekend in September each
year for some form of exhibition or fair.
The
Official Opening
Peter
Goers from 891 ABC Radio opened the show at 11.00am on the
Friday in his usual entertaining way. Peter is also known for
his role as a long time columnist in the Sunday Mail and describes
himself as a “reformed social irritant”. His address was certainly
entertaining. After the ceremony Peter viewed some of the exhibits
and patronized several dealers before leaving for another engagement.
The
Exhibits
Being
the second Half National held in 2010, the exhibition classes
on offer were those not included in Canberra last March. Interested
visitors were invited to view multiple entries in the following
classes, Postal History (including Marcophily plus Historical, Social & Special Studies), Open Philately, Polar Philately, First Day Covers, Frugal
Philately, Cinderella Philately, Philatelic Literature (including
a Youth Experimental Class), Youth Philately and Picture Postcards
(One Frame and Multi-Frame).
Overall
there were 82 exhibits, 58 in the philatelic classes and 24
in the picture postcard entries. For the first time, two frames
were reserved for the inclusion of brief non-technical descriptions
of the different exhibiting classes, and it is hoped that this
new initiative helped the viewing public to better understand
the material they were viewing.
There
were also two invited non-competitive exhibits from local collectors,
Michael Blake, an 8 frame postal history exhibit about Australia’s
involvement in the World War I, and Tony Presgrave, an Open class exhibit telling the story of trade on the River Murray.
In
addition, many of the judges displayed a single frame non-competitive
exhibit of their choice, resulting in some very interesting,
unusual and varied material on show. This interesting concept of a Jury Class has been tested before at Sydney Stamp
Expo 2005.
The
Juries
There
were two juries in operation, a team of 10 to judge the philatelic
classes and a team of 6 to judge the picture postcards. The
philatelic jury included two overseas judges, one from the
USA and one from New Zealand who each brought exhibits of both
quality and quantity to enhance the exhibition. These appointments
are done under Accord Agreements that the APF has with several countries, these being USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, South
Africa & Sweden. The exchange of judges is rotational with the aim of having a judge
from each country attend one of our shows and one of our accredited
judges attend a show in each accord nation over the course
of a two year period.
The
Awards
The
quality of material on display was very high, reflected by
the medals awarded, with more than half of the exhibits receiving
vermeil or higher –
Philatelic
entries - 3 Large Gold, 9 Gold, 4 Large Vermeil, 11 Vermeil, 12 Large Silver, 11 Silver, 7 Silver-Bronze 1 Bronze.
Postcard
entries – 1 Large Gold, 6 Large Vermeil, 9 Vermeil, 3 Large Silver, 4 Silver 1 Bronze.
The
Grand Awards of the exhibition were won by the following exhibitors
-
Grand
Award – Geoffrey Lewis (Australia)
Grand
Award National – Janet Klug (USA)
Grand
Award International – Robin Gwynn (NZ)
Grand
Award Picture Postcards – David John (Australia)
Full
details of the awards can be found on the APF website www.apf.org.au.
The
Dealers and a New Award
There
were 13 dealers in attendance, one local, one from overseas
and the rest from other mainland states. In speaking with most
of the dealers after the show, the conclusion reached was that
all were pleased with the outcome of the show taking into account
their direct sales, direct purchases, inter-trading plus new
contacts and prospects of future after-sales.
An
initiative launched at this show was the Best Dealer’s Stand
Award, which was judged with the assistance of two “secret
shoppers” not known to any of the dealers that did the rounds
of the stallholders. This innovative addition to exhibitions will be described in detail in a subsequent
Part of John Sadler’s series “Introducing the Australian Philatelic
Federation”.
The
inaugural winner was John Pearson from Pittwater, Stamps who
received his engraved beer tankard at the Palmares Dinner on the Saturday night.
The
official website for the exhibition www.adelaidestampex.com was launched in early 2009 to publicise all aspects of the event from the initial
publicity including the prospectus/entry forms and dealer’s
kits through to show souvenirs and the publishing of exhibitor’s
results and a roundup of pictures taken at the exhibition and
the Palmares Dinner. A copy of this report will also be added to the website.
Expertly
maintained by Jeff & Yvette Trinidad from Kalgoorlie, the website provided a single point of contact
for anything to do with the show. The APF has appointed the Trinidads as Exhibition Webmasters and there is a standing offer to future exhibition
organising committees to take advantage of the benefits that
a web presence can provide in promoting the planned show.
As
with all shows, philatelic souvenirs significantly assist
in the raising of the funds required to stage such an event. Stampex was no exception, with the offering of a range of overprinted products including 200 numbered Commonwealth Coinage miniature sheets in three different coloured
overprints (gold, red & ) plus 400 un-numbered overprints; 250 numbered imperforate Burke & Wills prestige booklets, 200 un-numbered PNCs of the Commonwealth Coinage plus two extra items available only during the show.
The
first of these were 50 only gold foil overprinted FDC pairs of the coins miniature sheet and single stamps. The second, which was
on sale at the Palmares Dinner, with only a few left for sale on the Sunday at the show, was a souvenir
booklet (100 numbered) showing the Drill Hall on the cover
and containing a Burke & Wills stamp postmarked the following day (Sunday).
Australia
Post also launched two products on the opening day of the show,
an exhibition miniature sheet showing the Stampex logo and Adelaide skyline and containing a $2.05 AAT stamp together with a 60c
Burke & Wills stamp. This is the first time an Australian and AAT stamp have been featured
together in a miniature sheet. The second was a new pre-paid
international rate picture postcard that was added to their
range. The postcard shows four well-known Adelaide views being
the Drill Hall, Elder Park Rotunda, Popeye on the River Torrens
and the new Convention Centre.
The
Australian Postcard Society also launched a souvenir Zeiher card showing the old wooden-structured Drill Hall that stood on the site in
the early 1900s. It is for sale either mint or serviced via
their website www.australian-postcard-society.com.
The
exhibition was widely publicised through radio and newspaper
advertising, supported by street signage and a large banner
on the GPO King William Street railing. A full page in the Australia Post Stamp Bulletin was greatly appreciated.
These
efforts produced good attendances on all three days of the
show, with approximately 1,000 visitors in total. Only a few souvenirs are left with some having sold out.
No
fewer than seven clubs/societies took the opportunity to hold
meetings during Stampex. These were the Postal Stationery Society of Australia, Cinderella Stamp Club,
Australian Cover Society, Society of Polar Philatelists, Australian
Postcard Society, interNational Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (NAPE) and stampboards.com. A Youth Judging Seminar was held on the Saturday afternoon.
If
a thank you email from the President of APTA is anything to go by, the show was highly successful from a dealer perspective
–
“I
greatly appreciate the thought that goes into your shows
and the consideration given to the trade. Food and drink
delivered to the stand makes the world of a difference when
trading on your own and Stampex always excels at this. Your committee is to be congratulated on a well run show
and I believe most dealers including the Kiwis, were happy
with their results”.
As
with all shows, the un-sung heroes are the willing band of
volunteers who support the organising committee on the ground
from set-up to knock-down. Without this help such an event would not happen. All volunteers were presented
with a print replica card in recognition of their valuable
contribution.