Australians voted with their feet at the 2006 IT&CMA exhibition in Pattaya, Bangkok, with no major convention bureau or venues exhibiting at this year’s event. Surprising until you start talking with some of those who have supported the show in previous years. As the Gold Coast Tourism’s Sandra Passaro explained, if the event was delivering business then there would have been plenty of Australian operators attending. But the fact is that in the past few years IT&CMA (see page 30) has, according to Ms Passaro, been below expectations. And, because all Australian bureaux have such limited funds, the ability to attend, even purely to maintain an Australian presence, cannot be justified any longer.
As has been written in mice.net in recent issues, there are many trade shows for the business events industry. Some would say too many. And attending all of them is no longer an option. Not only are the costs of buying a booth, printing brochures for distribution, and expenses relating to accommodation a consideration, but time out of the office by those who are attending must also be taken into account. And these costs alone are considerable.
But even if the business isn’t there should Australia still maintain a presence? Again, it comes back to time and money. And clearly if there is no business to be had then Australia should forget about it.
As a spokesperson for the Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre told mice.net, Asia is a very important market for both organisations.
“However, resources are finite and since last attending ITC&CMA in 2004 both organisations have focussed their efforts on targeted sales activities led by their joint Hong Kong office, established in 2004, in preference to trade show attendance.”
So, as with any exhibition, it is clearly up to the organisers of this tradeshow to listen to the reasons behind why Australian operators are no longer exhibiting and give them what they want. That’s if they still have an interest in Australian operators. With two new exhibitions beginning in China in 2007, one by Reed Exhibitions (CIBTM, Beijing, June 11-13) and another by TTG (ITCM, Shanghai, April 23-25), the options for meeting venues and convention bureau are again growing. Delivering results for exhibitors, however, is the only reason why these shows will have ongoing success and exhibitor support.
P.S. In the last edition of mice.net magazine (October 2006) our catering column featured Zest Catering’s Raphael Kahn in which we misspelt Mr Kahn’s last name. Our apologies to Mr Kahn for the error.
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