The Score Magazine - Archive December 2016 issue! | Page 48

An Interview with Michael Biwer
Michael Biwer, the Group Show Director of MesseFrankfurt had a chat with us during ProLight and Sound
Middle East where he spoke to us about the market, their plans for the future, their target groups and
much more.
This is the first year for
ProLight and Sound
Middle East. How do you
think the response has
been and what’s your
take on the market?
I think the Middle East region
is very important. It has been
growing for a long time and is
still growing. For example, the tall
buildings in Dubai, you have a lot of LED events and
religious institutions require this industry a lot more.
The benefit for this show could be nice for each of these
markets. The first show looked very good.
Is there a specific reason why you have only
ProLight and Sound and not Music in this show?
As we saw, there is not a very big market in the Music
Instruments industry in Dubai. Although, if there is a
certain need, we could certainly expand that as well. But
the first step would be to take up the industry that we are
already familiar in and that is why we went ahead with
ProLight and Sound and not Music Instruments for the
moment. If this comes around, we will be happy to do it
as well.
This market is different from the ones in Europe and
Asia. It is a different market share and we figured out
that, it is not that easy to target the MI side as it is a
niche market. The more powerful side is ProLight and
Sound as there is lot of innovations going on all the time.
This is probably the only reason why we target ProLight
and Sound.
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How do you think this show will benefit the
Industry?
We try to target other countries close to Middle East. To
be honest, we want to do it as if we don’t do it; somebody
else will (Laughs)
We hope to be the pioneers in this market although we
are still improvising and getting better. We hope to do it
in a more quality way in the years to come.
Do you have any message for the
manufacturers and Distributors about your
show?
If you target the market and want to have a quality
show run from Messefrankfurt with our levels of service
and quality, I would say come to Dubai and be a part
of it. As much exhibitors we have, more visitors will
come especially because manufacturers are visiting
the market. The quality is going up and exhibitors
are looking at them and we can grow. It is a need for
everybody to look for this market or to exhibit. For every
show, it is important to have a variety of brands from the
Industry.
Could you tell us in brief the main regions
ProLight and Sound Middle East targets?
We are focused on Middle East, Africa, Iran, India, and
few other regions that have a certain needs. For us, it is
an invest in a growing market. For example, In Iran, they
just opened themselves up and we know there is a need
for this industry. We are trying to focus on groups that
have this need and get the benefit from this.