As the 123rd Canton fair was in full swing, the 10th China Processing Trade Products Fair was held in Dongguan on April 19th. Throughout the two sides of the Pearl River, in addition to the Canton fair Exhibition Hall, large venues such as Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center(Dongguan), Tanzhou (Foshan) International Convention and Exhibition Center and the world's largest international convention and exhibition center to be completed in Shenzhen next year are rising.
Will the convention and exhibition industry in Pearl River Delta face new changes? From the experts' point of view, the rise of emerging exhibition cities provides new venue options for merchants. The development of exhibition industry depends on the market, industry and urban influence. There will be conference during exhibitions, and there will be exhibitions in the conference center. The modern exhibition industry should not only develop exhibitions, but also pay attention to high-end conferences.
As a first mover, how Guangzhou attract world-class exhibition enterprises to settle, to introduce high-level professional exhibitions and international high-end conferences?
Depth distribution in Guangzhou
The world's second largest exhibition company settled in
At the end of last month, a number of heavyweight industry leaders put their headquarters in Yuexiu district, including GL Events, the world's second largest exhibition company from France. According to the relevant person in charge of Yuexiu district, GL Events Yuexiu(Guangzhou) Development Co., Ltd was established by GL Events and Yuexiu Group in Yuexiu district with a registered capital of 30 million yuan, which is committed to promoting the development of high-end exhibition industry in Guangzhou.
With 40 venues and an average annual service of more than 4,000 exhibitions and conferences, GL Events is the world's second largest professional exhibition destination management company headquartered in Lyon. The company, which is listed on the Paris stock exchange and has branches in 17 countries, had 953 million euros (7.368 billion yuan) in revenue in 2017.
The connection between Guangzhou and GL Events emerged two years ago. At the 2016 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference, Olivier Ferraton( Head of GL Events), volunteered to be a salesman in Guangzhou. In the subsequent meeting with the main leaders in Guangzhou, Oliver Ginon(Chairman of the board and founder of GL Events), expressed his confidence in the development of Guangzhou high-end exhibition industry, accelerated the cooperation projects, laid out the core business, and settled the company's Chinese headquarters in Guangzhou.
At the end of that year, Yuexiu Group and GL Events ,the world's largest exhibition hall management and exhibition conference hosting company, held a joint venture contract signing ceremony in Guangzhou International Financial Center, jointly develop and operate Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Center project (the location of the old Jinhan pavilion). In the view of industry experts, this conference project is of great significance for the future development of Guangzhou exhibition industry.
It is revealed that GL Events located in Yuexiu District will rely on the strong exhibition supporting functions of Liuhua business district. Based on Yuexiu International Congress Center, this project is to face high-end enterprise customers, and hold small /medium-sized conferences and promotion activities in the field of fashion, consumption and innovation. In the future, they plan to become a preferred destination for international forums, industry conferences, annual meetings of large enterprises, arts exhibitions and other activities, so as to build an important international communication center in the world.
With the increase of city visibility, more and more world-class exhibition companies are deeply laid out in Guangzhou."In recent years, we have pooled the China National Machinery Industry Corporation (sinomach) resources to the south, and hosted various kinds of international exhibitions such as new energy, energy saving and intelligent automobile in Guangzhou. In the past three years, the average exhibition area of CMIE has reached 320,000 m2 in Guangzhou, attracting more than 3,000 enterprises and over 220,000 professional visitors every year.
Ren hongbin(chairman of China National Machinery Industry International co., LTD) said that in the field of exhibition economy, they will continue to develop existing exhibition project in Guangzhou and achieve breakthroughs in scale, influence and competitiveness. Besides, they will copy or transfer the advantages of other cities and resource to Guangzhou. Combined with the industry characteristics and advantages, Guangzhou will open up new exhibition fields and establish new exhibition projects
The exhibition industry in Guangzhou ranks second in China
“Every high-end professional exhibition is like the Fortune Forum of its industry.”
Guangzhou Guangya Messe Frankfurt Exhibition co., ltd. was established in 2005 with a joint investment of $12.5 million by Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH. and Guangzhou Guangya Exhibition Trade co., Ltd. Each of them holds 50% of the shares. Cheng yun, deputy general manager of the company, told reporters that relying on the advantages of the manufacturing base in Pearl River Delta, they have held exhibitions on lighting, sound, intelligent manufacturing, 3D printing etc in recent years. They are also closely linked to Foshan, Zhongshan and other famous manufacturing companies. The goal is to promote manufacture by exhibition and assist the exhibitions with manufacture. It is worth mentioning that Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition is the largest lighting exhibition of the world and the scale of Guangzhou International Professional Light and Sound Exhibition is the largest in Asia, they are very prestigious within industry.
"Every high-end professional exhibition is like a Fortune Forum, and industry elites all come to attend." Cheng Yun said that take the Global Industrial Automation Exhibition for example, the exhibition area was about 60,000 m2 and it attracted industry giants including Siemens, ABB, Yaskawa and the Fortune Global 500 companies to attend. A large number of upstream and downstream enterprises related to the giants also flocked to the exhibition.
"High-end professional exhibition is the barometer and vane of the industry, the industry leader and Fortune Global 500 were to represent the direction of innovation in the industry. He revealed that Guangya Messe Frankfurt Exhibition introduced high-end exhibitions to Guangzhou. With the help of German technology and experience, they upgraded the level and vision of the exhibition, reflecting the level and professionalism of Guangzhou.
As the exhibition business platform and international exchange platform of China National Machinery Industry Corporation (sinomach), they accelerated the development of the exhibition industry in Guangzhou. They plan to build an international new material exhibition with international famous companies in Guangzhou. In addition, this year, we will also hold an international "three grinding" exhibition, the products include abrasive material, abrasive tools, grinding and ultrahard materials, etc.
According to statistics from Guangzhou Municipal Bureau Commerce, 678 exhibitions were held in Guangzhou key venues in 2017, up 23.0% year-on-year. The exhibition area was 98.96 million m2, ranking the second in China (second only to Shanghai), with a year-on-year growth of 10.4%.The number of meetings was 7,768, up 9.0% year on year. The number of participants reached 15.703 million, up 5.5% year on year.
Last year, there are 15 large-scale exhibitions over 100,000 m2. Among them, the scale of Canton fair and Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition rank the first of its industry in the world. While the scale of China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou), China International Building Decoration Fair (Guangzhou), and China International Beauty EXPO (Guangzhou) rank the first of its industry in Asia. Guangzhou HOSFAIR, China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition, China (Guangdong) International Tourism Industry Expo and other large exhibitions will be further expanded and strengthened on the original basis. In October 2017, Guangzhou won the title of "The most competitive exhibition city in China" issued by China Convention and Exhibition Society (CCES).
According to Chu Xiangyin(Executive Vice President of CCES), Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing rank top three in terms of the national exhibition pattern. In comparison, with a great strength in conference, Beijing is inferior to Shanghai and Guangzhou in exhibition area. Backed by the huge manufacturing hinterland of the Pearl River Delta, strengthening the development of high-end professional exhibitions will be an important support for the development of the exhibition industry in Guangzhou.
Introduce international high-end conferences
The functions of the national communication center are gradually highlighted
As the 123rd Canton fair was in full swing, the 10th China Processing Trade Products Fair was held in Dongguan on April 19th. Throughout the two sides of the Pearl River, in addition to the Canton fair exhibition hall, large venues such as Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center (Dongguan), Tanzhou (Foshan) International Convention and Exhibition Center and the world's largest international exhibition center to be completed in Shenzhen and other large venues are rising. Will the Pearl River Delta exhibition pattern change into a new situation?
In Chu xiangyin's view, the rise of emerging exhibition cities provides new venue options for merchants. The development of exhibition industry relies on the three major factors--- market, industry and urban influence. Manufacturing cities form a dislocation with first-tier cities by relying on "brand of origin", and first-tier cities should not only hold exhibitions professionally, but also pay attention to the key weight of international conferences to consolidate their original position.
Last week, the 2018 High-Level Policy Forum on Global Governance and 2018 "Belt And Road" Finance And Investment Forum was held in Guangzhou. It is also the first time the Forum event has been held outside Beijing since it was held in 2012. Zhou xiaochuan(Boao Asia Forum vice President and deputy director), Tegegnework Gettu(UN Under-Secretary-General and Acting Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme) and officials from ten major "One Belt One Road" countries, including Bangladesh and Egypt, as well as representatives from UN agencies, international financial institutions, enterprises, development agencies and think tanks attended the Forum, attracting worldwide attention.
In recent years, Guangzhou has hosted a series of international conferences such as The Second BRICS Sherpa Meeting of the G20 Summit, the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, Canton Tower Science & Technology Conference, China Venture Capital & Private Equity Forum, and the Chinese Business Roundtable. In 2017, Fortune Global Forum was also successfully held, and the level and scale of participants exceeded previous levels. International conferences such as The 2018 World Route Development Forum and 2019 China World Ports Conference have been decided to be held in Guangzhou...A series of forum and conferences showcased the new image of Guangzhou's openness and innovation to the world, leaving a deep imprint on Guangzhou in the construction of a new pattern of the global economy.
"Guangzhou city master plan (2017-2035)", "general rules" draft, the draft of Guangzhou city properties as follows: the capital of Guangdong province, the national important central cities, historical and cultural city, the international comprehensive traffic hub, commercial center, communication center, science and technology industry innovation center, gradually build a leading global city under Chinese socialism characteristics.
For the first time in the nature of a city, the concept of "communication center" has attracted much attention. Li huan (Director of the Institute Of Urbanization at Sun Yat-Sen University) pointed out that the communication center represents a place where people from all over the world interact intensively. From Canton fair to Fortune Global Forum, Guangzhou has gradually become the "home" of high-end exhibitions and international conferences, and the function of international communication center has gradually become prominent.
"The exhibition presents the industrial value, and the conference reflects the city brand. Guangzhou exhibition industry has always been ranked in the top three in China. The venue hardware facilities were the top in the Pearl River Delta, and the exhibition venue area with more than 300,000 m2 is much larger than the surrounding cities." Chu Xiangyin believes that Guangzhou, with a good foundation, should focus on the "engine" of international high-end conferences, create an environment conducive to the development of the exhibition industry, further attract high-quality resources, and promote the high-end and international development of the exhibition industry.