Visitors at the Viet Nam International Trade Fair 2018 held in HCM City. Photo courtesy of Vinexad

Exchange efficiency is a crucial constituent element of the success of an exhibition, enhancing trade promotion and encouraging businesses to participate more and more in exhibition activities. Nguyen Thu Hong, Deputy General Director of Viet Nam National Trade Fair & Advertising Company (VINEXAD) share insights of exhibition organisation with Viet Nam News.

Viet Nam now has about 100 international exhibitions in Ha Noi and HCM City. Exhibitions in HCM City are attracting more businesses than those in Ha Noi. Why is this?

The Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in HCM City, where most of the largest exhibitions are held, meets all the standards in technical and area for expansion. The fair organisers attach great importance to exchange efficiency between exhibitors, visitors and passive customers, strongly focusing on their needs and market requirements. Efficient exchanges and successful transactions during and after each exhibition help increase the size of the next event.

According to our statistics, the scale of an exhibition in HCM City is usually 25-30 per cent higher than those held in Ha Noi. For example, the Viet Nam Expo, to be held in HCM City on December 4-7, expects participating businesses to increase by 20 per cent and the number of visitors to rise by 30 per cent.

Some argue the number of visitors attending an exhibition is not as important as the quality of visitors, what is your opinion?

Generally, the increase of scale refers to the enhancement of quality, but the most decisive element of the success of an exhibition is the “efficiency of exchanges” as this brings in more value than the number of visitors, especially for cases of specialised exhibitions, such as Viet Nam Hardware and Hand Tools Expo, Viet Nam Garden & Landscape Expo, Viet Nam MediPharm Expo and The VietFood, Beverage and Professional Packing Machines.

To attract exhibitors who are large, multinational corporations, the organisers must have a wide data file and good relationships with domestic and foreign trade promotion organisations, enhanced identification system and updated technology.

Last but not least, the organisers must emphasise the “spirit” of an exhibition career, which refers to the prioritisation of business interests. For example, Vinaxad has linked a number of our exhibitions to the network of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) and organises a series of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tour programmes. These efforts help connect the domestic and international business community.

You mentioned the “spirit” of the exhibition career, can you elaborate on this concept?

Currently, many domestic and foreign enterprises participate in the exhibition industry. There are now some 53 exhibitions held annually at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) in HCM City, meaning that exhibitions are held once a week.

This figure creates a lot of pressure on the event organisers, forcing them to try their best to attract more and more businesses to participate in the expos. From the perspective of Vinexad, one of the flagship organisers in the exhibition industry, we are proud to be the holder of the oldest fair events in Viet Nam, such as Viet Nam Expo Ha Noi 2020, which is 30 years old.

We are also pioneers in specialised exhibitions such as the Viet Nam Hardware and Hand Tools Expo, with the fastest growth rate among the specialised exhibitions (30 per cent).

The “spirit” of exhibition career is the promotion and prioritisation of business benefits and the determination to contribute to the development of the industry through each exhibition.