As The Xpo’s fetish media partner and fashion show producer since its split from Skin Two in 2007, I was not exactly thrilled to learn at the beginning of this week that there would be no Xpo for The Fetishistas to collaborate with this year.

But neither was I completely surprised by the announcement.

I had learnt just the week before that despite the Xpo sales team’s best efforts, it was proving difficult to get enough exhibitors to commit early enough to guarantee the viability of this October’s show. And the time left for achieving the necessary “critical mass” was fast running out.

After one further week of full-tilt sales effort, the target had still not been reached and with “great regret” Xpo organiser Cathy Norris issued the cancellation statement last Tuesday (see link to our news story, below right).

London Fetish Weekend itself was only launched last year, structured around the Xpo and taking over the slot vacated by Skin Two’s ailing Rubber Ball weekend. But when this year’s LFW programme was confirmed in April, the outlook for the Xpo seemed very good, says Cathy.

“When we launched The Xpo 2009, we had an immediate uptake on stand space which gave us the green light to go ahead again this year. Back in April we were very happy that it was going to be a good year despite the recession.

“Club Subversion and Torture Garden [LFW’s two main party promoters] had had really successful events for the previous year’s LFW and their party nights have been well attended throughout this year, so there was no reason not to launch the second LFW.”

The problem with this year’s Xpo, claims Cathy, was in the end not that fetish firms didn’t want to take part in this year’s show. Rather, it was that the recession had made people so cautious that too many regular exhibitors were holding back for last-minute cut-price deals.

“This may make financial sense to them,” Cathy says, “but it makes it really hard for us to promote them and the show to visitors in advance, as we have no idea who will be on board by the time we open.

“It also affects our cash flow, as all expenses for exhibitions have to be paid no later than a month before the show. As we start from zero each year, having no money coming in until the very last minute causes us a financial nightmare.”

In other words, these bargain-conscious companies had failed to realise that if they all held back for too long, there would be no last-minute deals because there would be no show — exactly the position we now find ourselves in.

Bargain-conscious companies failed to realise that if they all held back for too long, there would be no last minute deals because there’d be no show

There are, no doubt, people who will say the event should still have gone ahead even if it could only muster half its previous tally of exhibitors. But in the real world of business in which the Xpo has to operate, that is just not an option.

There is no comparison between an event on the scale of the Barbican show and the average fetish fair with a few dozen tables set up in a church hall or the backroom of a pub. The amount of work and financial commitment that goes into pulling off a big show like this is truly not for the faint-hearted.

And yet something that has depressed me both as an observer and participant is the small thinking of many of the firms participating in this big fetish show.

The Xpo offers them a world-class showcase for their brand and their products, with high-profile fashion shows and a wealth of alternative and mainstream media coverage spread over many months, all adding up to a massive amount of promotion.

And yet many companies still seem to regard it as nothing more than a chance to set up shop in central London for a couple of days and flog lots of stock to a captive audience. Says Cathy:

“Unlike fetish fairs, exhibitions like the Xpo are not just about selling product, and yet many exhibitors only use it for that. An important benefit exhibitors are buying into is a much bigger marketing and promotion campaign than they could not normally afford, to raise their brand awareness.

“The PR our publicist Li was able to get for exhibitors in past years has been invaluable to many of them and the continuous listing on our website linking to details about each exhibitors products and services is also a great piece of promotion.

“Last year 33,000 unique visitors hit the Xpo site in the three months running up to the show. Plus of course we also list and detail every stallholder in the show guide we give to all visitors.

“We know that all of this promotion works as we’ve had regular exhibitors tell us they’ve had increased sales via the link on the website after the show.”

From our conversation, it clearly irks Cathy that something on the scale of The Xpo could be equated by anyone to the experience offered by any ordinary monthly fetish fair.

“If you add up the cost of going to enough fetish fairs to reach the same number of visitors that go to The Xpo, then the overall cost is far higher than a single weekend at The Xpo.”

Regrettable though the cancellation this year may be, Cathy is confident that it is not the end of the line for the Xpo

The work done by The Xpo team to promote the industry during the run-up to the show pays off in website traffic and far greater visitor numbers than would attend a local fetish fair. says Cathy. “This is why we do not see ourselves in competition with the monthly fetish fairs.”

Regrettable though the cancellation of this year’s event may be, Cathy is confident that it is not the end of the line for the Xpo — just a hiatus. Next year’s dates at the Barbican have been announced (for October 2-3), and there’ll be a crucial change in how floorspace is sold for the next event.

“In all the years I have been involved with exhibitions, it has always been a common practice to sell off any empty space at a reduced price at the very last minute, as exhibitors taking up that space don’t get the same promotion and PR.

“But for 2010 we intend to change our booking policy and give a much better deal to those stall holders who book early and impose a supplement on those who take last minute space.”

What should exhibitors have done to avoid this year’s cancellation? They should, says Cathy, have “made earlier decisions, and if cash flow was a problem, talked to us about payment terms” — something that is “always open for discussion”.

I understand that all 2009 exhibitors who paid a deposit have had their money refunded and every exhibitor who booked a stand received “a personal explanation” of the reasons for cancelling. I’m also told the venue management have been very sympathetic and are looking forward to welcoming the event back in 2010.

In the meantime, all the evening events of London Fetish Weekend — Chaz Royal’s British Burlesque Invasion (Oct 1), Club Subversion (2) and Torture Garden (3) — are due to go ahead as scheduled.

And we, with our fashion production partner Festival of Sins, are looking into doing a standalone version of the catwalk shows we were planning for the Xpo, to be staged during the same weekend. Watch this space.