Leisure Supplies Show 2024: A Personal Account

Last month at Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire, Airquee exhibited at the Leisure Supplies Show (LSS) 2024 creating a groundbreaking display showcasing 130+ products and unveiling 70 brand new. LSS is the UK’s leading inflatables and leisure services trade event and 2024 was the 11th annual show.

This blog post takes the personal account of Airquee Marketing Manager, Giacomo Di-Lullo who attended the show for the first time. Read on to learn more about Giacomo’s experience and takeaways, as well as our LSS 2024 display video.

Having joined Airquee just a little over 6 months ago, preparations for LSS 2024 started before my time. As I was being inducted into the organisation, I quickly realised the importance of this show. My focus as the new Marketing Manager was to raise awareness of our exhibition and to support the team with digital and printed material.

Two weeks before LSS 2024 was IAAPA Europe 2024 in Amsterdam, my first trade show experience with Airquee and Airparx, which truly was a warmup in terms of display. After IAAPA Europe I travelled to Romania to assist with finishing touches to our marketing and to see for myself the scale of our operation from manufacturing and transporting over 200 products for our display.

Two days before the show we headed to Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire awaiting two lorries worth of inflatables. It’s safe to say the team worked up a sweat and everyone put in the hard graft to ensure every inflatable was offloaded and perfectly placed according to our director Edina!

The day before LSS, the calm before the storm. I could sense the mix of nerves and excitement from the team and as my first show, these feelings were amplified. As planned, the team cracked on to set up three and a half warehouses of inflatables and other displays including our new VIP and meeting area. After a successful dummy display run with all our products inflated, there was a collective sigh of relief and sense of pride in what we have accomplished – that evening we may have celebrated with a drink or two!

See our full LSS 2024 display HERE

The first day at LSS was a whirlwind! After our team meeting in the morning, it was game time. Our display inflated much like our adrenaline once visitors brought the energy nice and early. It was great to see initial reactions of our display after the hard work we put into it, but we had no time to take it all in – people came in and so did the sales… I even made the first sale of my career!

There wasn’t much down time on day one – it was pretty much eat when you can and don’t forget to drink water! For me, it was amazing to see the team in action all doing what they love, bringing the energy and passion all in their unique ways offering something a little different, but collectively smashing it out the park.

After a successful first day, it was great to sit down with the team and some of our oldest customers and partners for a lovely meal organised by Louise. For me, this became a time to digest and reflect on the first day, not only with team members, but also hearing feedback from customers and partners who also attended.

The pace of the second day slowed a little which in hindsight, was a blessing for me. On this day I was able to get more creative with the content we wanted to capture and connect with customers and partners on a deeper level. Everyone who I spoke to were brilliant sports, getting involved with action shots on some of our display products and videos using our Wheel of Fortune – even the ambulance crew got involved in some of our inflatable obstacle games (at least we were in safe hands!).

As day two started to wrap up, from sales to feedback, the realisation of a successful show began to sink in. There was an incredible moment when the team started to thank each other for their hard work – it’s these moments that make it all worth it.

The rest of the evening was spent packing up our display and travelling back home (3 hour train journey for me!), and if there was ever a positive sign to top of our week, it was definitely the Northern Lights giving us a show as perfectly captured by Phil.

Not only was I 6 months into my role as Marketing Manager for Airquee, this is also a new industry to me, so it’s safe to say I learnt a lot!

First of all, it was incredible to see the Airquee team doing what they love. As a marketer it’s great to see the passion oozing out of every team member… people buy from people, and we truly have the best people! At times it really did feel like the dream team; everyone brought something a little different that contributed to a very successful show, and I was proud to be a part of it. Working with Airquee is not just about our amazing products, it’s about joining a fun and positive community under one common goal – to bring smiles to faces through inflatable fun (and of course, drive each other’s businesses forward!).

Secondly, I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed meeting our customers on each day. It’s important to me to continue learning more about who we are talking to every day, through social media, through email, our website etc. Learning more about the triumphs of our customers, their struggles and their feedback on Airquee only helps me reinforce our strategy moving forward to create the best products, create valuable content and support where we can. I think I learnt about 100 different techniques on how to roll up an inflatable which all were “the best” way!

I think the key to our success at LSS 2024 was our emphasis on the customer. It wasn’t just about our products and sales, right from the get-go it was about community and sense of belonging. I believe launching Airquee Plus, our new loyalty club set the tone of the show. We wanted to give back to our most loyal customers and reward those who have stuck by us through thick and thin. I completely felt the sense of community, especially within the new VIP area we created – those smaller details I feel didn’t go unnoticed. we created a hub where people could relax, have fun and enjoy their day.

Learn more about Airquee Plus HERE

Finally, a shout out the LSS team for putting on a great show, the Airquee team are excited to exhibit again next year – can we do better? You’ll have to find out… See you there!

Did you enjoy LSS and our display, or thought of ways we can improve for next year? Let us know via our survey HERE

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