All eyes on China
Paul Woodward tests the growth engine that is China
avid Zhong can be forgiven for being a little distracted . As much of the world continues to focus on China , the only major exhibitions market to have been almost normally open for the past 12 months , he has just become a new father again . Much as his new daughter is clearly giving him great joy , he is also keeping an eagle eye on his business in China .
Zhong is the founder of one of the longest-established private exhibition businesses in China , VNU Exhibitions Asia , a joint venture with Jaarbeurs of Utrecht since the mid-1990s . He is also the chairman of UFI ’ s Asia / Pacific Chapter and founder of the UFI China Club . “ Our business has changed tremendously ,” following the pandemic , he says . “ It really was very difficult at the beginning .” Everyone , he says , was feeling confused and not a little scared . But , he says ,
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“ it ’ s actually turned out to be an opportunity to get more competitive and strengthen ourselves .”
China was offline for a much shorter time than almost any other market . DLG Exhibitions ’ president Chen Huifeng , notes : “ We had to suspend our operations for three months last year .” By July , he says , offline business was gradually recovering , and they were able to stage a number of major events in the second half of the year . In fact , it was a busy year for the company . In addition to relaunching its fair calendar , “ we completed a restructuring and went public , becoming the first Chinese exhibition enterprise to be listed on the [ Shanghai ] main board ,” says Chen .
Adsale Exhibition Services ’ chairman Stanley Chu told EW that “ the journey to resuming activities was turbulent ”. But , he says , the company resumed exhibitions in
Source ( below ): jwc , Global Industry Performance Review
Below : The expansion of venue capacity in China continues , especially outside of the three main economic circles
September and “ successfully held all our exhibitions in the first half of 2021 ”. He notes , however , that business in China will be evolving rapidly in the next 3 – 5 years . “ Labour costs , automation , new energy , circular economy , environmental protection are all keywords that can be applied to many industries in China . We must steer our exhibitions to provide solutions and assist technological advancements for industries with such focus ,” Chu says .
In its Global Industry Performance Review ( GIPR ), the consultancy jwc is predicting that the Chinese market will be fully back its 2019 levels by the end of 2022 . “ Or maybe still earlier ,” senior consultant and former Informa Markets Asia CEO Jimé Essink told a recent webinar for the report ’ s buyers .
That is certainly in line with the experience that Zhong is reporting at VNU . They have doubled down on their strongest shows , he says , eliminating up to 50 % of the markets in which they were operating with smaller and weaker fairs . The overall result of the business , he says , was 70 % of 2019 last year and should be back to 100 % by the end of this year .
Like everyone else , the VNU team has been reaching out to its customer base with digital services . Zhong does not see this so much as likely to generate revenues but rather as serving to build confidence within the industries served and “ to give us a stronger connection with the whole industry ”. As face-to-face came back quite quickly in China , he says , “ customers have more trust in us and have been willing to invest in our platform ”.
DLG Exhibitions has recently been announced as the first Chinese winner of UFI ’ s Digital Innovation Award and has also been experimenting with 5G live broadcasts and virtual reality in an event model it calls “ multiple screens and one cloud ”. Chen notes , however , “ These digital initiatives are based on traditional exhibitions , providing
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