ow have you and your team in Asia met the challenges of 2020 and how are you placed for what the Informa plc January trading update termed a ‘ gradual return ’ to physical events rather than a ‘ full rebound ’? It is very difficult to sum up at this stage as there remain ongoing challenges in the Asia region , even if Mainland China has returned quickly to exhibitions . In Hong Kong , we had an additional ‘ black swan ’ of the protest movements that started in 2019 but did carry on somewhat in 2020 .

Some of us in Informa Markets Asia had experienced the appalling SARS outbreak in 2003 and this gave us some key insight as to what to expect and how to handle cancellations and postponements of shows and , importantly , how to manage staff .

However , who could have expected such a global pandemic ?

Informa plc has been exemplary in how it has communicated throughout the company , taking each stage of the developments , concerns and anxiety very much into ‘ how we behave ’. This guides all employees as to how they

work with both their own colleagues and with our customer base .

Informa Markets Asia teams have been confident to adapt to new conditions as we all transform from fear , to knowledge , to vaccinations , to restart and rekindle our relationships whether digitally or physically .

As our Group CEO Stephen Carter says , “ Informa is and has become a digital enterprise with strong physical assets ”.

We are now looking at our forthcoming events in Asia with cautious optimism as the vaccines start to arrive . The challenge then becomes one of confidence coming back into markets and travel across borders without quarantine .

What are your hopes and strategies for the events business in Asia in 2021 ? My hopes are to get back to normality as soon as possible . No one likes having their movement restricted .

We will carry on with what we have been doing in 2020 in those countries and regions that have been able to open up at least domestically , as in Mainland China , Japan , Korea , Taiwan , Thailand , plus one B2B show

Since our initial interview , Michael Duck has been promoted to executive vice-president – commercial developmeant across all Informa Markets , although he will be based still in Hong Kong . We asked him for a few extra words on the new challenge . “ I am very much looking forward at this exciting new opportunity ,” he says . “ It ’ s both for Informa Markets and across Informa Group , so I will be also looking at the possibilities across all our product lines . They are very comprehensive as it also involves digital positions in publishing and information intelligence ( especially Pharma , Financial and Maritime ).”

Left : All the fun of the China Marintec fair

in Hong Kong . We will continue to work closely with the local industry associations and the governments as to what rules and regulations there may be to put on a tradeshow . Each is slightly different . But our allencompassing ‘ AllSecure ’ operations playbook makes it somewhat easier to follow ‘ best practice ’ as to what is needed to keep people safe and work in a hygienic and confident environment .

I also hope that we will quickly come to some form of international agreement as to how we prove that someone has had a vaccination . We already have them for ‘ non-Covid tests ’ but many fake Covid versions are in circulation . A certified , probably digital , format of proof needs to be established so that we can travel across borders .

Looking ahead at the 2021 calendar , what is your expectation for the number and quality of shows to be run physically in Asia by your teams ? I ’ m sure we all expected and hoped to have been back to business-as-usual by mid-year 2020 . SARS lasted seven months but reasonably quickly , after a period of some six weeks of zero infections , confidence returned to start meeting again and tradeshows resumed . The longer period of Covid-19 means we have all had to postpone or cancel shows not once but , in some cases , multiple times . It is far more difficult to stop a show than to put one on . We have to work with the industry verticals calendar , plus the estimation of return to movement normality plus the venue availability .

Our main venue partners have had to deal with so many ‘ unknowns ’, including turning themselves into temporary hospitals . We will try always to put on our full complement of shows for the industries we serve .