TCEB’s Exhibition Day 2013: Business Leaders Get Together to Brainstorm Vision of “Thailand’s Exhibition in 2020”

Bangkok – 26 February 2012 The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) organised the Exhibition Day 2013 under the theme “Thai Exhibition at Crossroad” where exhibition business operators and related organisation leaders met and discussed the direction of Thai exhibition industry in light of changing global economic and industry trends. The event also served as a platform for exchange of valued opinions on the adaptation of Thai exhibition industry towards 2020, and how to prepare for upcoming competition landscape and reinforce Thailand to stay at the forefront of exhibition industry in Asia.

Mrs. Supawan Teerarat, Exhibition Director, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau said that “although Thai exhibition industry has continued to maintain its leadership in the ASEAN region for the past recent years, the current global economy, the increasing competition within the region as well as the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community will post huge direct effects to the industry. It’s likely that regional exhibition hub will be shifted from Thailand to other ASEAN emerging markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar. Thailand needs to prepare to make necessary adaptatios to the changing competitive landscape.”

According to the latest UFI Delphi Study conducted by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), the trend of the global exhibition industry develops towards 2020 will make trade shows become thought leaders in their businesses and markets while serving as an efficient matchmaking platform between buyers and sellers. There will be more and more integration of various new communication tools to enhance the competency of trade show, especially in the area of promotion, market research, customer relationship management and knowledge management. The emerging cyber or virtual exhibition will become more pervasive where the mobility of visitors is limited and entirely change the business matching model. The study also shows that corporate network and, bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation between organisers, venue operators, trade associations, media and research companies will be a pace of industry adaptation towards joint trade show approach with aim to achieve a comprehensive industrial collaboration to bring the desired success to each trade show.

In addition, the UFI Delphi Study showed the list of industry segments with growing importance for exhibition business towards 2020. The top five segments with established presence in exhibition are Energy; Healthcare; Preservation and Restoration; Environmental Protection; Culture, Sport & Entertainment, and Information Technology & Consumer Electronics. Alternatively, the top five new emerging segments are electric mobility, biotechnology, Iintelligent Concept for Water Management, Smart & New materials, and Smart House.

“TCEB organised the Exhibition Day 2013 with aim to help the Thai exhibition industry prepare for various changing factors where industry and relevant organisation leaders meet and discuss the new approaches of collaboration, the adoption of innovation to create business value as well as look into the future to identify policy and vision of Thai exhibition industry towards 2020, how Thailand can continue to retain its leadership in the exhibition industry of ASEAN region while paving the way to stay at the forefront of the industry in Asia,” added Supawan.

The keynote speech at the event on the topic “Thai Exhibition at the Crossroad” by Mr. Preecha Sananvatananont, which focused on the competition landscape of exhibition industry in Asia. The event also featured a panel discussion on the topic “Thailand’s exhibition visionary in 2020: crisis or opportunity towards high competition”, with four key industry leaders:

• Mr. Pravit Sribanditmongkol, President of Thai Exhibition Association

• Mr. Sakchai Pattarapreechakul, President of NCC Management & Development Co.Ltd.

• Mrs. Ladda Mongkolchaiwiwat, General Manager of VNU Exhibitions Asia Pacific Co.,Ltd.

• Mrs. Supawan Teerarat, Exhibition Director, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau

The discussion topics included the influencing factors on the development of international exhibition industry as a result of global economic development; future opportunities and threats of the industry reflecting the four trends of change – economic shift, technology, aging population and green; changing strategic plan and business models to survive and grow the business in short-term and long-term future, as well as how to handle problems and obstacles.

According to Mr. Pravit Sribanditmongkol, President of Thai Exhibition Association (TEA); he said, “Thailand needed to adjust and have contingency plan to cope with changing competition landscape and evolving exhibition industry trends and business models in the future. Thailand has enjoyed the highest number of exhibition and space sole in the ASEAN region over the recent years. However, the global economic trend towards 2020 identifying the growing importance of five emerging markets i.e., China, India, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, would be an influential factor that draw many exhibitors to relocate their exhibition hub to these new destinations. Therefore, there is a critical need for Thailand to find ways to maintain the status of exhibition hub utilizing the approaches that best suit the country’s business environment like building collaboration network, organising joint trade show, extending industry line of exhibition to cover the country’s champion industries.”

“There are nine key industries that can serve as strong base for sustainable exhibition industry in Thailand, i.e., automobile & parts, production machinery, home construction & furnishing, food & agriculture, telecom technology, tourism, medical service and pharmaceuticals, fashion & accessory and energy. These are key industries for ASEAN countries where there is an extensive development of transportation and telecommunication infrastructure, energy, education, culture and tourism. If Thailand is able to extend the line of exhibition to include these key industries within 2020 according to the global exhibition trends, the country will continue to be the regional exhibition hub in the long-term future,” added Pravit.

In overview, Thailand hosted 90 – 100 international B2B trade shows in 2012, with a total of over 180,000 visitors. TCEB managed to convince 15 new trade shows to Thailand. The total number of exhibitions accredited by international exhibition standard quality currently reached over 40. TCEB anticipated Thai exhibition industry would grow 15 – 20 percent in 2013 and grow 30 percent by 2015, with a total number of 545,000 visitors and total revenue of Bt 46,500 million.

“Apart from building and convincing new trade shows, TCEB has a clear policy to help Thailand retain the status of regional exhibition hub while supporting the upgrade of exhibition across various parameters including contents, space size as well as number of visitors. We expect there will be 40 trade shows being upgraded this year. The get-together of business operators today is crucial for us to identify supporting policy and synergy between the public and private sectors to drive the Thai exhibition industry forwards and get ready for the changes in the next decade,” added Supawan.

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For more information, please contact

Arisara Thanuplang

Senior PR Manager

Tel : +662-694-6095

Email : Arisara_t@tceb.or.th

Sumet Kanchanapan

PR Manager

Tel : +662-694-6096

Email : Sumet_k@tceb.or.th