Shenzhen World
New world of best
practice with a Chinese DNA
CONSULTANCY JWC, IN THE SHAPE OF CEO JOCHEN WITT AND PARTNER
GERD WEBER, SHARE THEIR INSIGHTS ON HOW THEY HELPED REALISE
THE OPTIMUM EVENT CONFIGURATION AT SHENZHEN WORLD
ogether with colleague
Gerd Weber, Jochen Witt
spent three years advising
on the configuration of the
new venue jewel in the Pearl River Delta
crown. The German team brought their
Chinese partners advice based on global
best practice, while helping design an
authentic Chinese product fit for
international markets.
JWC’s links with the Shenzhen team
date back to workshops connected to a
UFI Asia Chapter event in Hong Kong
in 2015. JWC subsequently hosted a
Shenzhen delegation in Cologne and
other cities in Europe.
“In Cologne we showed them our
philosophy of venue planning, as well as
the upgrade of the venue we had both
been responsible for. At Kolnmesse, we
replaced 80,000sqm of space with new
space fully integrated into the venue.
The Vice-Mayor of Shenzhen was really
positive and asked us to come to the
city.”
It became clear that the Shenzhen
government realised their existing
centre was not up to date and capacity
couldn’t serve the growth of tradeshows
and conventions anymore.
“The Chinese side,” says Witt,
“predicted demand of 400,000sqm to
500,000sqm. The only question was,
how big should the first phase should
be?”
A driver for the maximum area was
the Furniture Show which comes to
Shenzhen World in March 2020, and is
now set to double in size to near on
300,000sqm in one step.
Normally JWC doesn’t participate in
tenders, says Witt. “But, in this case, we
knew what the government wanted. It
was a tremendous effort. Lots of
documents were needed – three boxes
full, all stamped. We knew we were up
Above:
Jochen Witt, CEO,
Consultancy JWC
Shenzhen
will be the No.1
economic city in
China, possibly
even in Asia in the
medium to long
term. The earlier
you will
be here the better
it is for you.”
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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ISSUE 103
against big venue competitors, mainly
from Europe, and all had offices in
China.
“Our top argument was that we were
fully neutral – not organisers or venue
operators, and anybody working with us
could expect the best advice experts can
give,” says Witt.
The tender was decided in just two
weeks and, by March 2016, the first
working meeting began for the team, by
which time Valode & Pistre architects
from Paris were also on board.
The first recommendations delivered
were on the layout and room
programme, with challenges including
storage and restaurant space.
One challenge Weber recalls was
convincing the architects to study other
venues to learn from both best, and
worst, practice.
“It was important, however, that we
weren’t building a German venue, but a
Chinese venue in China,” he says.
“For example, lunch is at 12 noon
sharp; that is important in China and is
why you need catering capacity because
everyone comes at the same time.”
“The government followed 95% of our