India's Pioneer Media on TradeFairs

“The Indian Tradefair Industry Needs Quality Certification.”

– Mr. Ashish Gupta

Mr. Ashish Gupta would be moderating a discussion on “Can Trade Fairs be the Preferred Marketing and Promotion Tool for Businesses Across India?” He is Director, Winmark Services Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.

TFT : What do you expect from this year’s IEIA Open Seminar ?
Ashish Gupta : I expect this years IEIA Open Seminar to be a new meeting point for India and USA. It was predicted that this major and advanced country for Tradefairs had missed India and flew to China….. but now the time is coming for American Exhibition Organisers to start looking at this territory. There are many many areas of cooperation that could be achieved from this region and for India. It could also be the starting point for new qualtiy standards for service providers and exhibition organisers as well as to inititate training programs for staff at all levels.

TFT : According to you , where will the Indian Exhibition Industry be at 2020?
Ashish Gupta : IEIA should institute a certification for Indian Exhibitions. The flip side is that this could bring the closure of small shows. But may help the industry at large and allow quality shows to get larger and prompt more exhibitors to participate as well as more visitors to attend shows. We might see a dip in business in some sectors, but largely the sector will see robust growth from year 2014 onwards with the elections coming up next year and chances of an exciting political environment. This will start the ball rolling and there will be no looking back for the creditable and quality organisers of trade shows. Unfortunately the smaller exhibition organisers might not be able to weather this storm, except if they are doing very niche and specialised shows. Industry Associations will gain importance in years to come for shows that not only add value to the members, but also bring about policy changes in government and access to tangible opportunities across the board.

TFT : How do you think the IEIA would help the Indian Exhibition Industry ?
Ashish Gupta : By certifying trade fairs on quality standards, starting education programs for developing professionals in this sector, mapping of the industry, inculcating standards of operations for service providers which in turn will become standards for exhibition organisers. Lobbying with the government on contentious issues, provide unbiased and transparent information that could be used by exhibitors or new exhibition organisers, create black-book of service providers and infrastructure pan India, create branding programs to inculcate new companies to exhibit…. list is endless.