India's Pioneer Media on TradeFairs

“I have already got plans for few more shows, which are going to happen within Messe Frankfurt for India” -Raj Manek

TFT: Can you throw some light on current edition of Media Expo.?
RM: We are very happy to be here again in 2016 with Media Expo, again a very successful show for us. It’s our 3rd edition in Mumbai since we took it over, but it’s the 35th edition of the show altogether representing the printing, the signage, the advertising industry for India which is, as we all know, growing and luckily for is also our show has grown and we have a nice 30% to 35% increase in our exhibitors numbers, so we are very happy to be in Mumbai and we are expecting 3 extremely good days of professional visitors.

TFT: How difficult is to get international brands on a portal like this and what kind of products do they have for the Indian audience?
RM: Actually it’s not so difficult if you’ve got the right platform, and I think everybody international and locally know the potential in the market and then really what drives it, is the potential in the market and we have so much potential for the advertising industry in India unlike in certain countries in the publishing side, advertising here is still growing, so while everything is positive and everything is growing in India, all the  internationals including HP, Mimaki, Roland and all the guys who are here, they know it better than us, so that’s why they are here and they are supporting us in a very big way, not only in Mumbai but they are supporting us is Delhi and other regions we go to. This is only because India has a  huge potential in this industry at the moment.

TFT: After the wonderful days that you will spend here in Mumbai, you got another show of similar kind happening in Delhi and then in Chennai. Could you tell us about those two shows and the brands out there?
RM: Sure, yeah its very similar, again Delhi is the mother show of Media Expo, its one that’s been round the longest and it’s the one that’s most established so that happens in September, which is going to be again bigger, better, stronger, more brands, more internationals. We have all the usual players who are supporting us anyway, but then we have the show in Chennai. Now, Chennai is the first time in the South, with this show and it’s been driven purely by the exhibitors, so the exhibitors have been actually pushing me for two years now to say South, now of course, there is a big buyer base in the South, a big printing industry in the South, so it’s our first venture in the South with Media Expo and I am very excited about it & I think it’s going to be a great show.

TFT: We wish you luck for both the shows. Coming back to Messe Frankfurt, it’s one of the leading organizers, the numbers of shows have been  increasing rapidly, there have been growth prospects that you guys have followed. What’s your plan for the current year and the next year? How do you see new shows coming into your kitty? Could you please share the details with us?
RM: Of course I can’t share the details, but I would love to tell you that, we have grown quite substantially, Messe Frankfurt in India, and already we have a very nice portfolio of around 20 shows in India and we have something like 40 conferences that we are organizing here, so it’s not only about creating the platform for the exhibition, but it is also about sharing industry knowledge and transfer of knowledge through the conference business, so I think that’s very important because India is growing so rapidly and the one thing India craves or the Indian people crave is knowledge, they take on knowledge very quickly and then they execute with their knowledge, business activities which is great to see, for me it’s fantastic and in the future  years I have already got plans for few more shows, which are going to happen within Messe Frankfurt for India which I hope to carry on growing and hopefully we will look for new sectors, which is maybe not the core components of Messe Frankfurt generally, maybe in Europe, but I see opportunities here and I’d like to maybe make it my core competence that Messe Frankfurt can create professional trade platform in sectors that historically we may have not been associated with.