Marcus Timson, FESPA Sales & Marketing Director reports on FESPA Asia, Bangkok, held in November 2008 ...
From the launch of the show back in 2006, when I joined FESPA, I have been impressed with the professionalism, dedication and energy of the Thai market and my colleagues, and now friends out there. Launching any new product or show in this case, is not easy, but by the time we reached the build up to the show – we were heartened to see all the components of the event come together with a larger than anticipated exhibition.
As well as achieving an impressive scale exhibition of over 14,000 gross sq metreage - With the help and dedication of Fujifilm Sericol, Zund, ICS and Halifax Vogel’s image board, FESPA broke the record for the world’s largest digitally produced jigsaw puzzle! At 360 sq metres and positioned outside the BITEC exhibition centre, this event, for a launch show in any market delivered a number of features never previously undertaken at any FESPA show in Europe! This initiative was an amazing showcase of the strengths and advantages of wide format digital print. I would like to say well done to all of the people who created this puzzle – it was a real commitment and challenge to print, cut and lay this huge jigsaw – all the contributors nee to be thanked = TSGA ‘s President, Pirach Thampipit for his excellent project management and TCEB’s support with the platform to hold the jigsaw in place. This exercise delivered significant value in promoting the show and providing the event with significant PR coverage.
The show itself featured some of the globe’s leading brands including HP as Corporate sponsor and superb exhibitors: Oce, Gandinnovations, Canon, Nazdar, Agfa, Durst, D-gen, Yuhan Kimberley, Nor-cote, Chromaline, Dubuit, M&R, Fimor, Esko Graphics, MHM as well as well known local brands such as Chaiyaboon Brothers, Winson Screen and U&Me.
At the opening ceremony, the VIPs arrived on a show helicopter, sponsored by Xaar, to officially open the show – throughout the event delegates and exhibitors enjoyed trips around Bangkok viewing the outdoor advertising landscape from the air – another highly unique experience at a printing show!
At the end of the first day FESPA hosted a stunning Lotus Flower VIP party on the BITEC helipad, next to the Lake and the theme was the Loy Kratong (Lotus Flower Festival) exhibitors and vip guests enjoyed well earned drinks and food and superb musical and cultural entertainment.
But FESPA Asia Pacific was not without its challenges! – the international airport in Bangkok was closed due to political demonstrations 2 days before the show was opened preventing many international visitors and some exhibitors attending.
Despite these hurdles, the FESPA exhibition team, supported by BITEC, TSGA and TCEB, rose to the challenge. We did what we could to fast tack all exhibitors who were unable to get out of the airport and then we did what we could, liaising with local travel agents and the Thai Exhibition and Convention Bureau to advice our exhibitors and international visitors how to get into the country via other airports such as Phuket and Chiang Mai. We then deployed local PR agency, Penner Madison on a frantic PR exercise to engage the local TV, Radio and Local press into providing additional PR and coverage to place the show onto the local agenda so we attracted as many local people to the show to meet with our exhibitors. As soon as show was open we then deployed a team to help exhibitors and the 307 international visitors who did make it to the event to safely leave Thailand. All exhibitors and visitors felt that FESPA did everything possible to ensure their safe passage and maximise the business effectiveness of the event.
Manuel Zuckerman, Managing Director - Fimor comments: “The show was very well organized and the exhibition venue was a really good choice, with the local staff and services being very efficient. It was a shame about the incidents at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, as the show would have been a phenomenal success otherwise.” And space for another quote from exhibitors (100 words should suffice) quote to be approved Monday. The end results were, in my opinion, very impressive. The show attracted 5,284 visitors over the three days – Adhiwatra Chanapokakul, FESPA’s Asia Ambassador, was interviewed on 11 TV stations and numerous local radio stations. The show went on! The event delivered value for exhibitors who and exhibitors sold machines, products and solutions. At the time of writing, we know that Durst, Oce, D-gen sold machines and were very happy with the outcome. The show worked despite the lack of overseas visitors
I would like to take this opportunity to thank TSGA, BITEC and TCEB for helping to run a show in these challenging conditions. I would also like to thank all of the exhibitors who were positive and understood that FESPA was not in any way to blame for these highly unusual circumstances.
Lastly, I would like to say a huge thanks to the FESPA team who were in Bangkok to run this event. It was a great achievement to run an event like this through this very stressful and frustrating time. I would also like to thank the team at home who did what they could to support us – it was appreciated.
As a footnote, I would like to highlight that all other corporate events in Bangkok were cancelled. I think this is a demonstration of the strength of FESPA exhibitions and the impressive turnout demonstrates, had the show not suffered the unlucky problems of the airport closing – it would have been a fantastically successful launch exhibition.
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