Which show in Shanghai next spring?

This morning I got a press release stating ‘In 2011 the NEPCON China Exhibition will be held at the Shanghai World Expo Venue (WEV). This new venue will offer exhibitors and visitors unparalleled facilities, unlike any other electronics industry event in the region. Its state-of-the-art infrastructure, meeting facilities, accessibility and hotel support will ensure the success of the event and secure its future growth for years to come.’

About time too! Yes, I know, the old venue (Everbirght) is very poor and has a lot of problems, all of which I have listed in various articles over the years, so won’t repeat. But is this too late? Well certainly I would like to have seen a venue move sooner, but maybe that was just not possible.

Last spring in Shanghai I sat with Steve Gold (http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?pg=story&id=32920) and mused the potential problems for Nepcon as it came up against the challenge of the MMI event to be held next March. At that point MMI had just announced a partnership with IPC and were showing signs of being aggressive in their marketing. So much so, that I called it for MMI and Steve called it for Nepcon.

Since then I have seen very little and my view has changed. Now clearly we will not know until Steve and I sit down and chat again at the end of April next year, but I am beginning to think I may have been wrong and maybe Nepcon can ride this one out. Certainly I feel MMI have missed an opportunity here!!!

What do you think? Let’s get some debate going here and figure out who’s going where and what the right outcome for the market is?

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Comment by Lilyan on December 2, 2008 at 4:13am: Everybody here knows NEPCON gonna move to a new venue sooner or later, as everybody mentioned and noticed and might already have complained for thousand times about the old Everbright with lots of practical problems. However, if you were in Shanghai and close enough to the industry people, you've known long time ago the new plan of NEPCON move to the EXPO venue on 2011.
But let’s wait and see - it is always the people who make things different no matter where. Aggressive marketing? New venue?? Alternative plan???... sure, it might help for a while, though the final victory depends on a long-term work plan with vision and action and the whole team support, with time with efforts.

Comment by Kim Sauer on December 1, 2008 at 11:20am: I would love to say that it's not the venue, but the 'who's there and what's on offer' that ultimately matters and sometimes this is true when there's no other alternative. But competition is rife, purses are being tightened, so everyone needs to be more creative in their marketing efforts, including venue selection. Those that offer the most attractive overall 'package' with the greatest value for all involved will ultimately succeed if they promote those benefits well. But I suspect this year/next year cost will be high on the list of everyone's priorities. So if better venue means increased costs then I fear it won't wash and yes it will be too late.