Egypt
Egypt: regional hub
and future hotspot?
Impeded by political turmoil and a lack of high-quality venue space, Egypt has
historically struggled to establish itself as a global exhibition destination. However,
with the inauguration of a new venue just over a year ago, this may all be set to change
gypt has always been a big
market,” says Matt Denton,
president of dmg::events. “It’s
always been an entry point
into North Africa. “With the Arab Spring
there was a bit of uncertainty but now,
with the new venue [in Cairo] and a lot of
shows going in there, everyone’s attention is
turning to it.”
Action is backing up those words, with
dmg opening a new office in Cairo in
addition to launching a new edition of its
construction trade series The Big 5 in the city.
The decision to open an office in Egypt
appears to speak volumes about dmg’s
confidence that the country can deliver
growth and success for its events.
“It looks to be an emerging and settling
regional hub,” says Denton. “Rather than
operate our shows remotely from our
offices in London or the UAE, we thought
it was the right time to create a permanent
establishment there. The new venue – the
Egyptian International Exhibition Center
(EIEC) – is a fantastic new purpose-built
facility and as that was being finalised we
had the opportunity to push our flagship Big
5 show.
“The establishment of a new entity is quite
hard, but it’s always beneficial. It’s easy to be
an international organiser and send people
to fly in, but a successful event, even if it’s
an international exhibition, needs to know
quite a large percentage of local exhibitors.
They generate a lot of the interest in the local
audience.”
Peter Hall, President – Global Exhibitions
EMEA at Informa, agrees.
“Egypt is typical of many markets in the
Middle East and Africa; they’re quite face-
to-face,” he tells EW. “We fly out regularly
but having people on the ground to support
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
Above: The opening of the 2018 Automech
Formula, the Cairo International Motor Show
some of those international efforts is really
important.”
Informa has been operating in Egypt
for a number of years, and the organiser’s
investment in the region doesn’t just come
in the form of an office in the country, it
is also actively working with the EIEC to
improve overall standards.
“We’re trying to play our role in
developing the exhibition industry in Egypt
and improving standards is a big part of
where we can help,” explains Hall. “We ran
quite a large health and safety workshop
before the New Year which lots of the
operational staff from the venue attended.
“Egypt’s an attractive market for us and
we’re quite heavily invested there. For the
last four years we’ve been working hard
with the venue to improve standards,
because the labour standards and the fire
and safety standards had been quite low.
They’re improving a lot, and we needed
them to improve in order to be compliant
with international standards that we have.”
One positive aspect of operating in Cairo,
which both Hall and Denton point out, is the
enthusiastic co-operation of the Egyptian
government.
“They’re really trying to push Egypt as
a hub for Africa,” says Hall. “There are a
number of government-funded programmes
that help us on a practical level. They help us
bring in hosted buyers from across Africa.
They subsidise our events and our hosted
buyer programmes.”
Denton adds: “The government is quite
keen to support organisers. If you can target
real buyers in the surrounding countries
they will help you fly those in so you get the
right people in the room. They’re keen to
support international events because they
do see it as broadening the appeal of the
country.”
The combination of the newly opened
Issue 1 2019
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