Our colleague, Kimberly Williamson of Aviall, attended and worked the 2010 edition of the Farnborough Airshow. Here is her report: 
Aviall’s presence at the show was a flurry of activity between interviews and a full staff being on board. The economy is showing signs of improvement with many companies sending multiple personnel as opposed to the Paris Airshow last year. Numbers appeared to be up, but nothing has been released yet that I know of. We had good traffic, especially being right next door to Rolls-Royce (since we are exclusive on three of their engine lines).
This year Farnborough rolled out what they called Future’s Day on Friday (the last trade day of the show). Future’s Day was basically an opportunity for companies to invite school children to visit the airshow to promote aviation. Yes, it sounds like a great idea, but for most of us…it really wasn’t. There were over 4,000 school children running amuck like locusts through the exhibit halls. All of our neighboring exhibitors (with the exception of Rolls) were very unhappy and ended up closing shop early (some left as early as noon).
Sounds like things are coming back and show management is trying innovative things to build traffic and good will with their various audiences.
Thanks, Kim.
TTSG
