Keeping up standards with our Witt about us
Paul Colston meets the CEO of Germany-based key industry consultancy jwc , Jochen Witt , who talks about China , changing exhibition models , the decline in European capacity and picks out three big issues to the fore
e see jwc has been
W expanding its operations , including with venueScout . What is the state of play with that project now and what are your other priorities now ? We have been working on venueScout for a long time and are currently in the soft launch phase . It is an exciting project offering great value to both venue operators and event organisers .
Two more senior consultants have joined our consulting practice ; we have been busy mainly with strategy projects for European M & A work and a number of efficiency and refurbishment projects for European venues , as well as master planning for new venues in China . Interestingly , most of the European venue projects resulted in plans for a decrease of exhibition capacities in favour of higher , adjusted venue quality . In our view this is overdue ; particularly in Europe we have over-capacities in several markets and a number of venues with substandard qualities .
You are foremost experts in the Chinese venue market , which continues to suffer from Covid-19 restrictions . How is that affecting Chinese expo business ? Is there a fear that if policy does not change in Beijing visa-vis Covid-19 rules , then some good exhibitions could start to hemorrhage from the country to other destinations ? Pre-Covid-19 China has been a growth engine for the global economy and also for our industry . The zero Covid-19 policy of the Chinese Government brought exhibition activities in the country to a complete halt . One of the biggest problems is that there is no planning security for organisers , exhibitors and visitors , as recent examples show that events have been cancelled with less than one day ’ s notice . Nobody can really predict when the Chinese Government will change the current policy . We believe that easing of restriction will latest take place in the first quarter of 2023 and business will get back to normal fairly soon thereafter .
There is still a strong confidence in the exhibition business in the country . We are involved in a number of projects in second tier cities and see that officials are eager to build new quality exhibition and conference space . And we can see the same attitude in first tier cities : Beijing has started plans for a new venue close to the Daxing airport and Shenzhen has initiated phase 2 of Shenzhen World , since the venue has attracted many large events since its opening . We are closely working with the teams in both projects and sense the strong underlying confidence in the exhibition and conference business .
How do you see the tempo of the new momentum and traction in general for your business now that 141 countries are open for
“ Most of the European venue projects resulted in plans for a decrease of exhibition capacities in favour of higher venue quality ” vaccinated travellers and the trade fair business seems to be returning in general globally ? We see a lot of uncertainty in the economy and in our industry : Limited access to the Chinese market , a war in Europe , recessionary trends , high energy prices and high inflation are factors which will influence marketing budgets of exhibitors and place pressure on margins of organisers and venues . As a consequence , exhibitors will spend less on exhibitions , fewer visitors will attend our events .
Events will trend to be smaller and more focused . To offset these developments , organisers will need to aim at new target groups and on companies which did not participate in exhibitions so far . Particularly for SMEs , exhibitions are by far the best marketing tool and we know that a huge number of non-exhibitors exists among these SMEs . Even though it is always nice to have the big bellwethers on the show floor , organisers will not win this battle with them and will need to attract at least parts of this untapped group of SMEs .
What do you see as the big three issues ahead for our industry and that leaders should be discussing in forums like the UFI Congress upcoming ? There are issues which we cannot influence and those which we can ; I ’ d like to see the discussions focus on the latter . Even though I feel that there are more than three big topics and that many of them are of similar importance , here – besides topics like data management , AI and sustainability – are my top picks :
• Bottom line : Venues , organisers and service providers are fighting for the same budgets . In times of limited exhibitor budgets and increasing pressures on margins , an intensified co-operation ►
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