The hectic few weeks of visiting trade shows all around the region is finally over. I went to several, not always the good ones, in search of something new that might revolutionize our BizGift industry. Did I find something special ? Well, not really. But that is nothing new. New trends like transparent (or frosty transparent) materials or brand new items like lanyards few years ago do not by come every year.

I believe that this year most of the effort of people in our industry is to manage the crazy market conditions. The relatively stable or decreasing material and product costs we have grown accustomed to in recent years are going up now almost every day. That is the main challenge these and not too much time is left for innovation. Unfortunately, because clients would sure complain less about about higher prices if they can get new products in return. But paying 20-30% more than 12 months ago for pretty much the same stuff is not what we like, do we .

One trend, not exactly new, but very much the latest, are the “green” items. And as the US promotional market is going “green” crazy, there are more and more “eco” products available. How “green” and “eco” friendly they actually are, that I am not sure. But the fact is, the “green” products are hot these days.

The only other thing that caught my attention in past few weeks were sublimation ready products especially all sorts of ceramics ready to be sublimated .

Otherwise all the same old stuff we have known for years, only more expensive then ever these days (especially in US dollar terms). We may see more in October when the fall trade show season kicks in.

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Few weeks ago I wrote a post on the Mega Macau Fair, based on my experience from October 2007. While my experience was far from good I decided to give it another shot and see how much better or worse the fair will be the second time around.

The problems with logistics I experienced last time were gone. First I played it safe and purchased the ferry tickets few days in advance. Also upon the arrival in Macau the staff from organizer were visible already at the Macau immigration. Thanks to having the trade show badges we could use the express lane. So all and all getting to Macau was smooth this time.

After passing the immigration more trade fair crew were on hand with information on shuttle bus. Unfortunately we were told to wait for 25 minutes for the bus and that was all the info we got. No word on the alternative - the Venetian Resort hotel shuttles that go around almost non stop. But knowing Macau a bit we walked out, jumped on the hotel shuttle and 10 minutes later we arrived at the fair venue.

So, how about the trade fair ? Takes about 1 hour to walk it all. Very few exhibitors and what I found even more surprising were many booths that were left empty even though they looked like someone paid for them … Not much to see, meaning nothing that I can’t see at other fairs held during this period around here. The whole trip was again, waste of time for me. And I wonder how the exhibitors must feel with so little traffic …

I simply do not see any reason why this trade show should last … I myself do not plan to visit again and I would have to loose my mind if I were to decide to exhibit at this show…

At least in the streets of Macau I could see these CocaCola branded rickshaws :-).

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The Hong Kong Gift and Premium Fair is not as big fair as Canton Fair, but for a fair that specializes at something and not at everything it is rather huge. There are about 5000 booths and the organizer says “50,000 quality buyers from 141 countries”. Well, I would argue with that “quality buyers” claim (more on that in the article). But it is hard to argue about the size of the fair. The first time I visited was in 1995 and that time I already felt the fair was big. It was crammed in several halls and rooms of the original exhibition centre. That time the fair was still for both gift and household goods. In 1998 the exhibition expanded into the new extension of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC - on the photo) providing room for many exhibitors previously only able to get on the hopeless waiting list.

Few years later the original show split into two - Household Fair and Gift and Premium Fair (with a week gap between them). This split provided for more room for exhibitors, but clearly not enough. Barely 10 years after the new exhibition centre opened the new extension works are under way.

Unlike the Canton Fair and the new Mega Macau, the Hong Kong Gift and Premium Fair is very well organized. It is easy to navigate for buyers, the services for exhibitors are on pretty good level, food and beverage services are available all around the venue at reasonable prices.

What I see as the main problem of this fair is the growing mismatch between the expectations of buyers and the exhibitors. Most of the exhibitors naturally come from Hong Kong. Many Hong Kong companies have been for years moving away from cheap stuff towards innovative designs, higher end products, developing brands. Many visitors who come to the Hong Kong Gift Fair simply look around for new ideas but are not willing to pay for them. Their only plan is to take the idea and look for cheap copycat version in Canton Fair in China. Many of them will even shamelessly admit that. The result is that many exhibitors are reluctant to display new products as they are afraid of getting copied. They do have the new stuff in their booths. But they will only show it to their old or regular customers they believe are loyal. The consequence is many buyers complain, there is nothing new to see…

The other draw back for exhibitors are way too many trade fairs held at the same time in Hong Kong (competing trade fairs at the HKCEC and at the Asia World Expo at the airport), Macau, Guangzhou. These fairs are not attracting new audience, only splitting the existing one. Less visitors walking each fair, visitors walking more fairs… From what I hear visitors are also not too happy about this… But, as long as there is market, there will be supply… We will see what future brings. For now, I am getting ready for this year spring trade fair season.

P.S. - Name cards are a necessity for a trade show visitor or an exhibitor. Check some cool ones this blogger has found.

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Unlike Canton Fair , the Mega Macau is a brand new trade show held in brand new venue and in a place where trade shows haven’t been that common. Macau clearly wants to follow Las Vegas example not only as a gambling paradise but also as a convention and exhibition destination.

The first Mega Macau trade fair was held last October (2007) during the autumn trade fair season on in the Far East. I went there to have a look and I had mixed impressions.

The venue itself - The Venetian Macau - is great. The convention centre is a part of the newly open Venetian casino and resort and that sure creates a different experience than the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre or the Asia World Expo some 60 km to the east in Hong Kong. Shopping malls, kitsch decoration, decent selection of restaurants. But there weren’t too many other positives about the Mega Macau show.

Getting there logistics - This was a nightmare. Getting from Hong Kong to Macau is usually very simple. You get to the Macau ferry terminal, jump on the next available ferry (there is obe every 10-15 minutes) and you are set. One hour later you disembark in Macau, clear immigration, hop on taxi and go. Was not the case during Mega Macau.

I spent about 3 hours waiting for the ferry in Hong Kong. My stupidity, I should have guessed and buy ticket in advance. But it did not end there. In Macau, there was a special immigration channel for the trade show visitors. But only for those with badge. The organizer messed up and did not deliver the badge to me on time, I had only invitation to get the badge on site. Bad luck, no speedy line for me, I had to queue up for about 45 minutes in the regular line.

Organizer (Kenfair) promised a shuttle bus to Venetian right outside the ferry terminal. Well, the organizer staff were hiding and I had to look for them. When I found them, they told me there is no shuttle only a hotel shuttle. Then they pointed to an 1 hour long queue. I had 3 options - wait an hout there, or wait an hour for taxi or walk for half a day. At the end it took me 6 hours to get to the fair, a jjourney that should not take more than 2.

Why actually I went to the fair ? Well it is a new kid on the block so I wanted to check it out. Moreover they advertised some sort of Asia Pacific Advertising Product show as a part of the fair and I was curious to see how that is going to look. At the end the travel was total waste of time. There were only few desperate exhibitors waiting for some visitors. Most of the visitors were people from Hong Kong on a quick curious trip just like me. Not much to be seen there that I can’t see in Hong Kong gift fairs without all that traveling headache.

Attracting exhibitors and buyers to a brand new fair is never an easy task, especially when it involves a new venue and new location. But Kenfair, the organizer of Mega Macau, has a very strange strategy. We have been exhibiting in a fair in Hong Kong organized by Kenfair for perhaps almost 10 years. It took us 4 years to finally get a booth at a good location. We kept the booth ever since. Then last year a very strange request came from Kenfair - To keep your booth in October in Hong Kong you have to exhibit in April in Macau too. I am not even sure whether this is legal but I do not care. I sent them to hell and decided to withdraw from October fair in Hong Kong …

The other negative I found was the ever present cigarette smoke. There is no smoking in the exhibition hall itself but people are (or were) allowed to smoke just outside the hall, in the fair check-in area and that I found weird. This does not happen any more in trade fairs even in such smoking obsessed country as Mainland China …

Do I recommend to visit Mega Macau ? If you plan to fly half way across the globe to see this fair, then better stay at home. If you are in Hong Kong or Guangzhou already for other fairs then go, but only if you have a day to spare …

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April is a very busy trade show period here in the Fair East. And thanks to the nature of the BizGift industry most of these trade shows are important for us. This mini series of posts will introduce those most significant ones.

By far the biggest show that takes part in this region is the China Import and Export Fair, better known as Canton Fair. It is held twice a year (in April and in October) and the next one will be its 103rd edition. With the shift of the manufacturing from developed countries to China this fair is perhaps one of the most important fairs these days. That however by no means means it is also one of the best. Far from that …

The fair is currently held in 2 phases (different products) with 5 days gap between them. Each phase is split into 2 venues - the old one and the new one. These two venues are located at the opposite ends the of the huge, traffic jammed and incredibly polluted city of Guangzhou.

The fair itself, despite some efforts from the organizers, is quite a mess. It is rare to actually find a booth where the name on the booth is the same as the companies inside the booth. The booths themselves are commodity. Many companies do not exhibit, they simply get the booth, carve into three (one wall for one exhibitor) and sell it on for 5-10 times the original cost. This brings 2-3 total strangers into one booth, each of them with different product line that often does not even belong to that particular hall or even that particular fair.

The other popular feature of Canton Fair is hundreds of exhibitors displaying exactly the same thing, in exactly the same packaging, with same item number on the package. Hundreds of exporters trying to sell the same product from the same factory. One consequence is that you walk and walk until you drop dead but you always see the same stuff. The same stuff however does not have the same price. I had an experience that in 5 booths next to each other people were offering me exactly the same thing from 0.50 to 1.60

The biggest problem with the Canton Fair is the number of exhibitors whose only purpose is to cheat and take advantage. They are not a majority, but there are many of them. One has to exercise great caution. Often the information given by the exhibitors is not accurate, often it is not backed up by anything, often it is an outright lie. Many people who visit the fair for the first time get carried away by the sheer size of the fair, the variety of products and the prices (if compared with prices they pay to their local suppliers, importers). Simple advice here - when something looks to good to be true, it usually is not true.

My recommendation for new visitors would be - go around, get the information, contacts, ideas, but do not waste too much time discussing things. Get back to the suppliers after the fair, get things from them black and white in writing and move on from there.

The food in the venues is mostly crap, the coffee is bad and overpriced and the beer is often either warm or rock solid frozen . But to be fair to the organizers there are obvious efforts to improve the show. I was quite surprised when I received a questionnaire with a survey on planned changes to fair from next year mostly to do with planned expansion of the fair.

What would I change about this fair:

• I would absolutely prohibit reselling of the booth space and enforce that regulation

• I would screen the exhibitors before accepting them to make sure the con artists do not make it there (this would mean much less exhibitors but much better quality, saving space, saving time)

• I would take the fact that 95% percent of visitors are overseas people into consideration when it comes to food and drinks at the fair.

Perhaps one day that may happen. For the near future however the plans are to expand this fair and split it into 3 parts instead of 2 and that does not sound like a good idea at all …

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