No business like show business
03 October 2008
At the very outset let me confess that I am not overly enthused by conventional trade shows and conferences, and I am a bit sceptical as far as their efficacy goes with respect to exhibitors, participants and visitors. I have in the past also raised other issues, such as the Carbon costs of trade shows , EMTWW, December 2007.
However, in the first week of September, I did indeed fly down to Bangalore to visit the first outing of Electronic India (EI ’08) although it was billed as The 9th International Conference and Exhibition of Electronic Components, Assemblies, Materials and Production Equipment.
EI ’08 was organised by Germany’s MMI (Messe Munchen International) and had the participation of the Indian Printed Circuit Association and its members. According to the official blurb, the show had over 12,300 visitors and more than 4,500 conference attendees. The blurb further points out that the show encompassed 16,000sqm of space, and participation by 446 direct exhibitors from 25 countries. Questionable, even counting London (as listed for two exhibitors), and Hong Kong as separate countries, although to a casual observer standing at the upper level of hall number one, looking at the various country pavilions and their flags, it would have seemed that the Germans were the dominant participants; no doubt because of it being an MMI show.
Clearly, the steady but not spectacular growth of the Indian electronics manufacturing sector, after many years of unfulfilled promise, has finally begun to attract quality international exhibitors at its trade shows.
Of course, it will be some time before Indian visitors to such a trade show get to see genuine new product launches, despite EI ’08 bulletins announcing a range of item launches previously seen at other international events, or in at least a couple of cases, already in use on production lines.
It will be even longer, one suspects, when we would be able to see genuinely Indian made, international quality, electronic manufacturing equipment, despite the fact that several of the worlds equipment majors have design and software development centres in India; sadly a fact not highlighted adequately at any of the conference sessions.
I think I will refrain from writing here about individual exhibitors and specific products. This is bound to get me into trouble from those not mentioned and may result in a slew of e-mailed protests. Suffice to say that there was a good mix of equipment, components, raw material and operating supplies on display along with the usual booths belonging to trade publications, industry associations and chambers of commerce. I was particularly impressed by the range and quality of some Indian-made components and material. This was a good sign indeed of a maturing industry, as also indicative of a decent market potential. My one real regret was not to see any exhibitor promoting e-waste mitigation, treatment and related technologies. MMI might wish to address this in their next outing in Bangalore.
The show by itself was clearly a success and the organisers must be complimented on a job well done despite a not totally adequate infrastructure at an almost brand new exposition centre (in itself a great improvement on the nightmare of a venue in Delhi) and the ‘still being developed’ infrastructure around the geographical location of the exposition centre, a considerable distance from downtown Bangalore and from the main electronics production locations of the city. I was particularly impressed by surface transport arrangements made by the organisers to bring in attendees, participants and exhibitors from the new International Airport and also from far flung areas of the city of Bangalore recognizing the difficult local transportation facilities. I was also impressed at the aplomb with which the show organisers handled the situation when the second day of the show happened to be a local religious holiday with more students and other casual visitors dropping in than serious electronics types.
I managed to speak to several exhibitors, Indian as well as international. By and large all were satisfied and indicated a desire to be back next year. They seemed to think that the infrastructure deficiencies would have improved in time for the 2009 event. I am informed that MMI is chuffed to bits at the response and of course the fact that they turned in a positive balance sheet for the show. This must surely mean better days ahead unless something drastic goes wrong!
I would however be remiss if I did not raise two issues. Firstly, it would be good to know the number of attendees and visitors from the Bangalore catchment area for south and west India, against the number of visitors from other parts of the country; particularly the north. Several exhibitors did raise the point that they had not seen any significant number of visitors from electronics companies located in the north of India. This could of course be because of the expensive travel costs involved, not to mention the costs of hotels and of time away from work.
The second point, in somewhat of a lighter vein, is the large number of Chinese exhibitors who, as I walked around the halls, seemed to have had very few or no visitors at all. Is that why most such booths had the Chinese personnel manning them, eating noodles or other food in their booths at all times? I have seen similar scenes at many international shows and one does wonder if it is really viable for many of these Chinese companies even to participate unless of course they are heavily subsidised and the people just come along for the ride!
All in all a good show, well done; and 2009 can only be better!
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