Initiating the conversation, we would like to request you a brief on the historic episodes of your company and all those fairs/exhibitions that Cems organizes for textile and allied industry?
We commenced our Textile Garment Technology and Machinery Expo in Bangladesh way back in 1999 and now Textech is the leading and oldest exhibition of its kind in Bangladesh for the entire Textile & Apparel Industry of the country. As the exhibition was focused on the Textile & Apparel sector, we launched 2 concurrent exhibitions catering to the same sector, namely, `Dye+Chem Bangladesh’ and `Dhaka International Yarn & Fabric Show’. The strategy proved an immense success and we have launched `asia+TEX 2009 India’ – an exhibition on Textile Garment technology and machinery focusing on the South Asian Textile & Apparel sector in Mumbai, `Dye+Chem India 2009’, `Mumbai Int’l Yarn & Fabric Show 2009’, `Colombo Int’l Yarn & Fabric Show 2010’, `Textech Sri Lanka 2010’, `Dye+Chem Sri Lanka 2010’ and `Dye+Chem Asia 2010’ in Singapore.
We are also planning to held the `asia+TEX 2012’ in Singapore which will focus on the entire Textile & Apparel sector of South and South-East Asia.
Can you please provide us the closer picture of worldwide Trade Fair & Events business in select arena? What important trends do you see in the Trade Shows industry?
Speaking of trends, I do not see any new trends that are being developed by Exhibition Organizers. The same theme is being used in every market which is a wrong strategy. Perhaps, the Organizers should focus on the requirement of the market and then launch their exhibitions, an area where I don’t see much attention is being put. An exhibition is being made important whereas we work very differently and it is the market that we focus on and not the exhibition. If we make known the size and importance of the market, the companies would definitely participate in an exhibition. We identify the important sectors and then create a demand for that particular market and then launch an exhibition without concentrating more on the exhibition and in return, the exhibition automatically becomes a success.
CemsOnline caters to the industries of established economies in textile and garments industry namely US, India, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Pakistan. What are your views about the role of these shows in South & South-East Asia market?
Definitely the role is extremely important as Exhibitions / Trade Shows are the best media to have a direct face – to – face interaction with the people and we feel that with the exhibitions that we organize, we create that very important business platform in all these countries where the Seller – Buyer directly interact and we have seen the growth in the sectors where we organize our exhibitions. We are a kind of Un-recognized `Trade Promotion Ambassadors’ of these countries where we organize exhibitions.
Has the successful show to be organized on same strategic planning for every countries, or it differs from country to country? Where does it go different? How much do the study of exhibitors spending behavior taken into account?
Well, if I have to tell you this then I will have to let go of our Trade Secrets which I cannot. But yes, each and every Exhibition is worked on a different strategy and planning. Bottomline, we study everything and each & every minute detail is taken into account for future planning and strategies.
Your company also organizes expos for textile dyes/chemicals. From planning to getting through these kind of events, where are the challenges conjectured to be pullulating the most?
I don’t see any challenges. In fact, we received a very good response from the Exhibitors and Visitors alike and everyone from a Businessman to Associations have appreciated our Strategy in launching such important exhibitions which were required for the Industry and have thanked us for identifying and filling up that vacuum.
Today’s market is crowded with competitors. How do you manage to peg the major share in business against the players in your businessline?
It depends whom we take as competitors. Honestly, we do not deem any Organizers as our competitors as they have their own vision and we have our own. We create that perfect trade Platform in a country and enhance trade between countries. Whereas some Organizer’s vision is limited to the number of Booths and the size of the Exhibition. So, visions are different and the entire definition of a “Big Exhibition” is different for us. We also try to create some uniqueness in our events. And with Billions of Exhibitors out there with different mind-sets, if you create something different catches the eye of important Exhibitors.
To what extent has technology powered the success of trade fair organizers like yours?
Without technology, it would be impossible to keep cope of our vast operations and exhibitions in so many countries. We spend quite a big amount on updating technology for faster communication and organizing of our exhibitions.
What are your comments on Online Virtual Trade Fairs?
Online Fairs are important and may work very well but I think they are not friendly and any visitor trying to make contact to an exhibitor has to go through a process of registration, etc which makes it slow. Such Trade Fairs should be online for longer duration and the business matching should not be complicated which would shy away potential visitors trying to go through that process. What happens then is that the Visitor then Googles that Company name and contacts them directly hence the Online trade Fairs do not show overwhelming results as the contact is not made through the Online fair but is made directly.
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DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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