Exhibitions are normally considerd as a one-stop approach for buyers to meet suppliers. However, many people experience limited outcomes from attending an exhibition in China because of insufficient communications with suppliers (if the exhibition is too crowded, for example); absence of senior management at the booths; language barriers; limited product displays, etc. Yet to achieve good results from an exhibition is not difficult as long as you:
1) choose the right exhibition; 2) do sufficient preparation; and 3) follow up well afterwards.

In the next several postings, we will discuss this in more details, according to my experience in assisting clients with exhibitions in China.

Choose the right exhibition
After you have done your needs analysis and figured out the product list that you would like to source from China, you may find that attending exhibitions is one way to meet a group of Chinese suppliers within 3-4 days. Then you can start to collect the exhibition information and list them together for comparison later. Here are some indications for you to tell if the exhibition is worth your while:

• Location

Location is not absolute indication of quality but most of the time exhibitions held in China’s first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou are generally better in terms of size and attendance. There are also several exhibition centers in Beijing, yet the New China International Exhibition Center and China International Exhibition Center are some of the bigger ones. The Beijing International Convention Center is usually used for forum-type exhibitions.

• Size

Many exhibitions will put detailed information on their websites, including the information of previous exhibitions if this exhibition is held annually. By studying the number of exhibitors and attendees of the previous exhibition, you can judge if the exhibition is good or bad. If the related industry is also substantial, exhibitions with more than 500 exhibitors and more than 30,000 persons attending are normally worthwhile to attend. As a reference, Canton Fair 2008 (Autumn) had 21,917exhibitors for exports and 424 exhibitors for imports while 174, 562 persons registered to attend from overseas.

To be continued...

(Images from the recently staged International New Materials Fair, Handan, China)