Venue project
“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.”
Best practice
Consultancy JWC,
in the shape of CEO
Jochen Witt and partner
in JWC, Gerd Weber, share
their unique insights with
EW on the task of helping
to realise the optimum
exhibition configuration at
Shenzhen World
EW sat down in Shenzhen to hear the
inside line from Jochen Witt, a former
German Messe director and former
UFI President, who explained how his
small consultancy was hired to play
a key role in Shenzhen government’s
big project to construct the world’s
largest indoor exhibition facility.
Together with colleague Gerd Weber,
Witt spent three years advising
on the configuration of the new
exhibition jewel in the Pearl River
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
Delta crown and ensuring that the
Chinese partners benefitted from the
world’s best practice, while getting an
authentic Chinese product fit for the
Chinese and international markets.
JWC explains how the contract
came about.
“Our first contact with the
Shenzhen people was via workshops
connected to a UFI Asia Chapter event
in Hong Kong in 2015. The Shenzhen
Government had invited industry
experts from all over the world to do
some workshops on venue planning,”
Witt says.
Following that first workshop
delivered by Weber in March 2015,
JWC sent a consultancy offer as a
German company, but the feedback
was that a small company with no
Chinese office didn’t mean anything.
“We were told to get in personal
contact and invited a Shenzhen
delegation to come to Cologne and
also visit 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 into new space fully integrated
into venue. The Vice-Mayor of
Shenzhen was really positive about
that and asked us to come to a
meeting in Shenzhen.”
Was it initially to discuss
modernising the existing Shenzhen
exhibition facility?
“No. They wanted to build a new
one. The old one was limited in space
in the downtown area. The traffic was
impossible and they had to move the
big show,” Witt explains.
He adds that the local government
had realised the existing centre was
not up to date and capacity couldn’t
serve growth of the tradeshows
anymore.
Below:
Mr Mao
Daben
explains the
Shenzhen
World vision
“The Chinese have a way of
predicting demand. They are very
good at that. Their predicted demand
of 400,000sqm to 500,000sqm is
remarkable with hindsight. The only
question was, how big should the first
phase be?”
A driver for the maximum area
was the Furniture Show which comes
to Shenzhen in March 2020 and is
now set to double in size to near
on 300,000sqm in one step when it
moves in to Shenzhen World.
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 against big venue
competitors, mainly from Europe and
all had offices in China.
“We placed a lot of effort, therefore,
into presentation and documentation.
“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.
“We didn’t discount on price.”
The tender was decided in just
two weeks. “They moved fast and
committed,” recalls Witt.
By March 2016, the first working
meeting began for the team and
Valode & Pistre architects from Paris
were also on board, having been
selected at the same time.
The first recommendations
delivered were on the layout and
room programme, with challenges
Issue 5 2019
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