IELA Annual Congress "uniquely varied"

IELA International Exhibition Logistics Associates members gathered from January 30 to February 3 in New Delhi for their annual general meeting.

"New Delhi occupies an important position as a host to international events," the association of exhibition hauliers insists.
The programme surrounding the congress was described as uniquely varied and "the election of Ravinder Sethi from India (managing director of R.E. Rogers, India) as the new IELA chairman a highly apposite highlight". The board elections could hardly have been more closely contended either, with an unprecedented four candidates vying for two vacant positions, the association reported.

Even if the number of delegates did not quite keep pace with that in Rome, where record attendance was achieved last year, interest in the event was still very lively. Some 150 delegates represented the 104 members from 46 countries.
Keynote speaker Ruud van Ingen, President of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry UFI, ventured a prediction on how the global exhibition industry would develop in 2005. Forecasts from leading exhibition magazines all over the world backed up what he had to say. van Ingen stressed that trade fairs were the driver and mirror of the economy, that they had enormous influence in the capital goods segment and that exhibition visitors brought particular influence to bear on corporate purchasing decisions.
He also addressed such issues as the recent stagnation in the exhibition industry and possible reasons for this, identifying self-satisfaction among organisers, outdated marketing and business methods, economic recession and the dot.com collapse as some of the culprits. Economic growth is created by a high incidence of innovations, as with the invention of personal computers in the 1950s, van Ingen maintained.

"An innovation is an invention with a variety of uses and applications that generates new income." Moving forward, the UFI president suggested that exhibition organisers, instead of acting purely as show management companies, might also manage databases or deliver market analyses.
Praqdeep Laroia, chief general manager of the ITPO India Trade Promotion Organisation, was invited as guest speaker to say something about the host country and provide some interesting figures. Already the fourth largest economy in the world, India is changing rapidly, he said. Gross domestic product growth jumped from 5.8 % in 2001 to 7 % in 2004, and in 2003 it reached 8.2 % no less. The forecast for 2005 is 5.9 %. Continued positive development rests on the IT industry and on growth and increasing sales in the automotive sector.
Laroia also discussed India's exhibition scene. He cited Montgomery, Reed, CMP, Edward Liu, CEM Singapore, Euromedia, DMG Exhibitions, Messe Frankfurt, Messe Düsseldorf, Messe München International, the Thai and the Korean Trade Centre as some of the most important organisers on this market.

India's customs system is in the process of reorganisation, Laroia continued. Not only are import duties decreasing more and more to fall into line with those in other countries, but the complex system as a whole is being dramatically simplified.
The guest speaker named the Pragati Maidan Delhi, the Chennai Trade Centre, the Chennai Bangalore Trade Centre and the Bangalore Tirupur Coimbatore as India's major exhibition centres. The Exhibition Complex & Mart in Noida, the Apparel Mart in Gurgaon, another in Gwalior, in Kolkata (Calcutta) and in Hyderabad are planned as additional exhibition venues.
Laroia took the Chennai Trade Centre to illustrate the development in the number of exhibitions. Having hosted 12 fairs in 2001, 35 events took place there last year. Another 35 are scheduled for this year, leaping to 45 next year. The exhibition logisticians meet 2006 in Athens.

m+a report Nr.3 / 2005 vom 27.04.2005
m+a report vom 27. April 2005