In the global exhibition industry, the man who can analyse data and use it most effectively should be king. Marc Cochrane, BSG Asia, looks at how much online communities help us predict and launch new shows?
Companies like Ali Baba now have a database of 80 million users. The company [a high profile manufacturing directory and products catalogue] operates primarily in mainland China, but also across Asia and elsewhere, so the access to data they have is just incredible.
If they decide they want to look at how mobile phone component sourcing is happening, they actually have a data centre team that can go through and see where the buyers are located that have an interest in these components, what are they searching for, and which suppliers in that database of 80 million potential suppliers or users they are contacting? So they have that insight that enables them to potentially launch an event, maybe they can see there’s a heavy amount of sourcing happening in Shandong province in China, so they can launch a small show in Shangdong servicing that sector, as an example.
An exhibition like food and wine is high-touch. You need to be there. An organiser that doesn’t have that digital platform, that community, can they realistically build it where they could compete against a digital platform that has grown up online and has a database of 80 million?
Is the strategy to partner with someone like Alibaba who is always going to have more insight than you, or is it realistic to try, as a company like Reed or any organiser, to really try and build your own niche community?
This was first published in issue 1/2014 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
