Great response to UFI report news

UFI and BSG have just announced the imminent release of the second annual report of the Trade Fair Industry in Asia. It has generated a great response from individual companies and media, already being reported in a number of places including:

Travel Daily News

Highlights from the press release include:

The report provides detailed information on the development of exhibitions and supporting facilities in 13 markets: Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. It includes data on actual market performance in 2005 as well as forecasts for growth in 2006 and beyond.

The report shows that the overall Asian exhibitions market grew over 12% in 2005 in terms of actual space sold by organisers. Exhibition sales topped 10 million square metres in the year according to the UFI/BSG research. China remains the top market with almost 40% of space sales in the region, followed by Japan in second place and South Korea in third.

BSG recruiting again

The following advertisement has appeared in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. We would be very happy to hear from any readers who may be interested - the job is Hong Kong based:

Exhibitions industry - exciting opportunities

Manager / Assistant Manager

A fast-growing consulting business is looking for a talented self-starter with experience in the exhibitions industry to join its Hong Kong team. This role will involve working with high-profile international organisations, assisting them to develop their activities across Asia.

The successful candidate will be a university graduate with 3 - 5 years of exhibitions industry experience and the capacity to work comfortably independently in countries around Asia. Fluent English is essential. Putonghua and other Asian languages would be a significant advantage. Experience of exhibitions in different Asian companies would be of most benefit.

Please apply in writing by e-mail with full details of relevant experience and expected salary to Ms. Kim Cheng, Business Manager, Business Strategies Group Ltd. Email: kim@bsgasia.com

BSG to work with BPA on events in Asia

The following press release was issued by BPA Worldwide last week while we were all in London attending the FIPP B2B conference:

Hong Kong China 1 May, 2006 – Under a recently signed agreement, Business Strategies Group Ltd. (BSG) will work to enhance and support BPA Worldwide’s Events Audit offering in Asia.

Hong Kong-based BSG will assist in marketing new BPA Event memberships and supporting existing members in Asian countries through non-auditing customer services activities. BSG is Asia’s only consultancy supporting business media and events.

“BPA offers world-respected standards in events attendance auditing, as well as circulation auditing of publications and other media, and it has proven its commitment to China and greater Asia,” said Paul Woodward, Principal of BSG. “We are proud to be working with BPA to help Asian event producers provide their exhibitors and sponsors with solid assurance of attendance and audience demographics data.

“In an increasingly crowded market, the better-quality exhibition organisers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors,” Woodward added. “Providing properly audited data to their customers is an excellent way to do that. At the same time, the major international exhibitors in Asia expect organisers to adhere to the same quality benchmarks they are demanding elsewhere in the world.”

“We have been doing newspaper and magazine audits in Asia for over a decade now and, with expositions and events of all kinds on a major growth curve, we feel that the time is right to make the benefits of the BPA Event Audit known in this region,” said BPA President and CEO Glenn Hansen. “Exhibitors throughout the world want third-party verification of what they are getting in return for their events investments, and BPA is leading the way in supplying these important metrics.”

New member of BSG team

BSG is delighted to announce an addition to its consulting team. Mark Cochrane has been based in Asia for almost 10 years, working in that time for Global Sources, the Gartner Group and most recently as an independent consultant. An MBA graduate FROM the American Graduate School of International Management(Thunderbird), Mark has wide-ranging research experience in the B2B and technology industries in Asia and will work as a consultant on many of our client projects as well as helping us to expand our range of multi-client research studies.

Woodward quoted in Alibaba.com release

Alibaba.com has just announced a new programme for partnership with exhibition organisers. The company's official press release includes a quotation from BSG Principal Paul Woodward:

Industry analysts agree that with increased competition in Asia's trade show sector, trade show organizers who adopt innovative media strategies will have an edge over the competition. Paul Woodward, Business Strategies Group (BSG) founder and a veteran of business development in Asia with over 20 year experience in the region, said: ''The Chinese exhibitions industry has been growing at over 20% a year for the past five to 10 years. It is increasingly important for trade show organizers to distinguish the quality of their events with much more sophisticated communications programs and doing so with the right media partner.''

UFI Asia Seminar 2 weeks to go

With just over 2 weeks to go, sign-up for the UFI Asia/Pacific Seminar has substantially exceeded our expectations. At close of play on Friday we were expecting 144 delegates from all over the world (see the website for list of who is coming). As well as the anticipated strong showing from all over Asia, we have delegates from as far afield as Russia, the Czech Republic and the USA.

Event sponsors are the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong Tourism Board, AsiaWorld-Expo, and Adventor. Thanks to all of them.

Details of UFI Open Asia/Pacific Seminar

The UFI Open Asia/Pacific Seminar, which is being managed by BSG, has released its programme and booking details on the web site of UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

The theme of the Seminar, scheduled for 21 - 22 February at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre is The Key Role of Visitors & Innovative IT Solutions for Your Exhibition Business. Speakers will include:

• Lynne Mathieson, Marketing Director of Reed Exhibitions
• Sarah Farrugia, Managing Director, Farrugia Leo Ltd, UK
• Lindy Wee, Director Marketing & Communications, Singapore Exhibition Services, Singapore
• Heinz Kreuzberg, Director of Central Division Information Systems, Messe München GmbH
• Yunya Zhang, General Manager of InfoCenter, CIEC Group Corp., Beijing, PR China
• Krister Ungerboeck, Managing Director, Ungerboeck Systems International, USA
• A speaker from Alibaba.com
• Stanley Chu, Chairman, Adsale Exhibition Services, Hong Kong

China Daily quote

BSG Principal, Paul Woodward, is quoted in the China Daily newspaper in his capacity as Regional Manager of UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

UFI Asia Seminar announced

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, has announced its first Asia Seminar, to be held in Hong Kong from 21 - 22 February. The seminar, open to both members and non-members of UFI will focus on the topics "The Key Role of Visitors" and "Innovative IT Solutions for Your Exhibition Business."

BSG manages UFI's Asia/Pacific office in Hong Kong and will provide project management services to run the Asia Seminar.

e-mail feed added

There has been some discussion on the blogs recently (here too) about the use of e-mail feeds instead of the orange lozenge "RSS" feeds for blog readers. This seems easier than having two, overlapping RSS/Atom type feeds. So, we have replaced one of the feeds at Asia Business News with one which should generate an e-mail for you each time we add a new post.

We're using Feedblitz for this. I will be interested in any comments you might have on that.

BSG China 100 launched

We have just announced in our weekly newsletter that we will be launching the BSG China 100. This will be a definitive listing of the top 100 trade fairs in China and we expect it to be formally launched around the end of the year. More details will be posted here as the plans develop.

Creating a corporate BLOG

This blog has been created, at the excellent suggestion of fellow blogger Hugo E. Martin, to complement our news and opinions site. It will be updated more intermittently and will contain just information about our own company activities or those of our clients.