The Baby Expo has reached yet another milestone in 2009 – they celebrated their fifth birthday and saw there baby outshine its classmates at all three shows in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town.

The Baby Expo has broken record upon record this year by drawing over 400 exhibitors, offering over 500 products on sale and attracting over 70,000 visitors over the three shows. The Baby Expo is also the only exhibition in South Africa to have exclusive rights to live Barney™ performances in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town. 

In just five years, the brand has established itself as a leader in the pregnancy, parenting and baby exhibition industry. Officially the biggest and most successful baby and parenting exhibition on the South African events calendar, The Baby Expo provides superior quality visitors, first-class exhibitors and outstanding organisation and creativity.

The baby bug has definitely bitten media across South Africa judging from the great interest they showed in the Joburg, Durban and Cape Town shows. With a record number of interviews set-up this year between Projeni Pather, Exhibition Director and various members of the media, it just goes to show what a huge impression The Baby Expo has had on the media. The Baby Expo has received over R22 million worth of coverage over the three shows in 2009, which included signing e.tv as their official broadcasting partner for the 2009 and 2010.

More Champion achievements achieved by The Baby Expo in the last five years, are:

The Baby Expo won a hat trick of awards as the ‘Best Exhibition of the Year’ at the 2009, 2008 and 2007 Annual Exhibition Association of South Africa (EXSA) Awards in the 6,001m² to 12,000m² category. In three consecutive years The Baby Expo has taken top honours in this category in recognition of excellence in the Baby and Parenting Exhibition Market.

The brand also scooped up a Sliver PRISA Prism award in 2007 in the hotly contested media relations category and was also nominated as a finalist for media relations in 2006.

The queues seemed to be endless when more than 2,000 pregnant women gathered in Johannesburg in 2007 for an attempt at the world’s largest gathering of pregnant women which was recognised by the Guinness World Records book. “Although it was initially quite a daunting task, we managed to get this world-record attempt sanctified by Guinness World Records as an official world-record, setting a high standard for other countries and cities to follow,” said Projeni Pather the brain child behind The Baby Expo.

“With the phenomenal success of The Baby Expo’s exhibition in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town the baby and parenting industry will gather again in 2010 with more specialised products and services. Not only is this the big year of the Soccer World Cup™ in South Africa, it also marks the scheduled due date of our quadruplets – in Joburg from 13 – 16 May, Durban from 27 – 29 August, Cape Town from 29 – 31 October and back to Joburg again from 25 – 27 November, just in time for Christmas shopping! The Baby Expo continues to grow from strength to strength, and will keep providing the most selective, specialised and comprehensive sourcing platforms with the participation of leading baby and parenting exhibitors,” concludes Pather.