Thursday, October 09, 2008

China National Commitee meets in Ningbo

I was honoured to be able to attend the meeting this week of China's National Technical Committee on Exhibition & Convention Standardization in Ningbo. OK, it may not be a title to get the pulse racing, but it is actually the only official, national level committee of any kind for the exhibitions industry in China. It is chaired by Chen Xianjin from the Shanghai World Expo Group who is also the chair of UFI's Asia/Pacific Chapter. The 20 or so key members are a real who's who of the industry in China.

I gave an overview of developments with the ISO's new standard and in UFI's own standardisation efforts. Pictured here, next to Woodward are Chen Xianjin (L) and, next to him, the Head of Ningbo city government's Convention & Exhibition office.


Other leaders of China's exhibition industry in the picture (and taking leading roles in the Committee) include (from the left) Tang Guifa from Shanghai, and Chen Fang and Li Kai from Beijing. Not pictured included old friends from the industry in China such as Wang Mingliang of CMP Sinoexpo, Mike Jiang of Reed's Shenzhen Sinoexpo business and many others.