Trade fair participation increases
Charumini de Silva
Soon after the end of the war in the country, the local and
international trade fair participation has increased and will further
increase in the future.
|
Imran Hassan |
Local trade fair participation will also increase with the economy
taking off. The global economic meltdown had a direct impact on the
business and many local companies still find themselves in financial
difficulties.
Due to this situation most of the companies have reduced their
advertising and promotional budgets which affected the trade fair
organizers directly, Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services (Pvt) Ltd.
(LECS) Director, Imran Hassan told Daily News Business.
He said: “With the recovery of the global economic crisis,the
international trade fair participation will increase further and we
could expect many international buyers for events too. This would
facilitate to organize international events in countries such as Dubai
and Singapore. One of the main challenges that we face is the lack of
infrastructure development for trade fair exhibitions. The Sirimavo
Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre (SBMEC) will become insufficient
as the numbers of participants increase, he said.
He said: “Lack of high tech infrastructure is another major challenge
that we face. Visitor catalogues on CDs and virtual exhibition tours on
site are not to be seen in our industry. The majority of the exhibitors
are not creative enough to put up attractive booths or do real
promotions in booths.
The exhibitors have a major role to play in a trade fair exhibition
and an organizer alone cannot make the event look good and successful.”
“The cost of a trade fair exhibition depends on the size, standards
maintained, local promotions and international promotions of the show.
The cost of participating in a trade fair exhibition is relatively not
high compared to an advertisement in the print media or the electric
media,” Hassan said.
“The SME sector participation in trade fair exhibitions is very high
since the participation of 70 percent of all shows are from the SME
sector,” he said. |
