Playfair 2012 – Celebrating Five Years of Play
This year’s Playfair the Association of Play Industries (API) will commemorate five years of the UK’s only annual trade show highlighting the latest and greatest innovations in play space construction and design. View Playfair 2012 - Celebrating 5 years of Playfair.
The API is a trade association that represents around 85% of playground companies operating in the UK. The first Playfair was held in 2008 in order to provide a platform for API members to promote their products directly to communities and schools.
It has not taken long for the reputation of Playfair to grow over the years, with increasing numbers of visitors attending over the two days of June when the show has always been held. The variety of visitors has changed also. As Playfair is both unique and free to attend it is a very attractive event for local authority staff from different sectors, such as children and youth services, or parks and open spaces teams, as well as parents who are active as school governors or on a local PTA. Every year Playfair also invites local schoolchildren of various ages who can visit the show and try out the play equipment for themselves.
Not only has Playfair long been a successful showcase for the UK play industry, it also provides a valuable learning experience as well. Every year, Playfair features a comprehensive seminar program with several guest speakers who talk on various topics from funding and play design, to community engagement and the value of consultation.
Last year’s Playfair was a high-profile success with the attendance of Olympic gold medallist, Sally Gunnell who gave an inspiring talk on the need for the government and communities to embrace active play as a pathway to sport in order to meet the London 2012 legacy targets. There was also a talk from Emma Kane, a mother from Oxford, whose hard campaigning brought about the resurrection of the Playbuilder funding scheme in 2010 after it was cancelled. Emma’s seminar received much applause from an audience grateful for her efforts.
This year’s Playfair is already on-track to be the biggest show yet with a high level of sign-up from API members and strong numbers of visitors already pre-registered. An impressive show of support from both the play sector and local authorities, in spite of the difficult economic times, both for the play industry and communities at large.
This year API will have an added cause by helping to promote the child’s right to play through the Right Year for Children campaign which aims to strengthen children’s rights in England.
Held on the 19-20 June at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, Playfair 2012 is free to attend for all landscape and play and leisure industry professionals. For further information contact: Ray Baxter at Brintex on 020 7973 4695 or email: r.baxter@hgluk.com
Date: 20th February 2012