“TFT correspondent visited the IEE Expo 2018 organized at Bombay Exhibition Centre to meet the President and CEO of Messe Frankfurt – Wolfgang Marzin.
With over 25 years of experience in the Exhibition Industry having executed & organized exhibitions in almost every continent and the ongoing IEE Expo 2018 in BCEC, Mumbai, Prachi Sharma asks him about his experiences and plans for India as an Exhibition Market.”
TFT – How many exhibitors are participating in this edition of IEE Expo?
WM – Over one hundred and seventy exhibitors are participating among whom are many Market Leaders, the good thing is, there is a whole range/spectrum of the industry from the suppliers to the OEM’s, from safety issues to new technologies. Everybody is here and I am very happy that IEE Expo is growing.
TFT – Good to see you so excited about the exhibition, what kind of footfall are you expecting by the end of the show?
WM – First of all, I think this is one of those industries/exhibitions/shows which Messe Frankfurt organizes all over the world. The Elevator-Escalator Industry is the future and the future has only started. With the population growing in China & India and particularly worldwide, they all need to be very safely transported and at the same time as fast as possible! So, in my opinion this industry is a Bottle-Neck industry. It is one of the crucial industries which will pave the way for a better future. Nowadays we need to live in high rises because the population is ever growing and counting, there are more than 700 million people in India or more, so this all makes it very clear. We need everyone to be logistically faster for instance in our fairground we have 10 kms of Escalators and Elevators and we transport only in/from our company 4 million people every year. So we know exactly how important it is and that is why it’s a great industry and this show/expo will display many new technologies for the future.
TFT – Can you give our readers your perspective on Exhibition Sector in Global Market?
WM – Messe Frankfurt has been organizing trade shows since 700 years. So, we can witness that our trade shows, over all centuries and over all economical rollercoaster times are a stable possibility to showcase and to meet and find solutions to make the world better (that is the way I see it). We see most of our exhibitions growing everywhere. Of course we have some challenges here and there, economic challenges as well, trade barriers here and there but trade shows are a way to break the ground for new technologies to be showcased and also to compete, which is important you know, if you have competitors on a neutral place like an exhibition – they always have to strive for the better, always have to strive for more and of course we believe, not only because I’m working at a trade show company, that we can prove for hundreds of years it is one of the best means, of course it’s changing always, we have more fringe programs, conferences and sessions. The part of (I would say) Scientific Science is even more attached to the Trade Shows also for India. If you look at what’s going on in India, I mean, my first time in India was at Pragati Maidan in 1988. I have seen trade shows in India for 30 years now and see what’s going on. I mean, India is definitely growing and there are so many places now that I wish us organizers always to have a little better of an infrastructure and I think there are still options to expand your fairgrounds. If the Indian Logistics and Fairgrounds and Venues are on a top level/top notch, India will be one of the top level Exhibition Markets. It’s already a top market in general but India will be one of the leading Exhibition Markets in the world and that’s 100%.
TFT – How or what has been the growth of Messe Frankfurt in the past 3 years in India?
WM – Actually, Messe Frankfurt started operations about 20 years ago presenting Indian companies and bringing/inviting Indians to our shows. We very seriously started exhibitions in 2010. We started with 1 show in 2010 and now our portfolio is 25 and growing. We look for more in all ranges that we cover. Messe Frankfurt covers textile, consumer goods, technical shows, safety /security, elevator, escalators, light, cars, after-market, and so on and so forth our no. of shows grew from 1 over 25. Now, I know this was not your question but just to show the relationship, now we are 120 people not only in Mumbai but also in Delhi and growing. The same applies for the turnover, we started 10 years ago with like 1.5 million euros or 1.8 million dollars and now we are looking at 10 million euros or 12 million dollars and it keeps growing. People like the owners of this venue (Mr. Patel) who I have known for almost 2 decades now, we could tenance. We could tenance in Mumbai and Delhi and in other cities of Beautiful India (Chennai / Pune). We grow because we can contribute value to the industry. We can only grow if the Industry wants us to be their organizer and this is what we try to be always in very close co-operation with the associations with the many partners we have. For each and every show in India, we have an Indian Partner.
TFT – How many shows has Messe Frankfurt organized in the last 3 years?
WM – Every year we are organizing 2-3 exhibitions. In the past 3 years, I would say we organized at least 10 or maybe 12. We did Automechanika which was 3 years ago after which The Aftermarket Show together with ACMA the association. I would say on an average, every year we are doing 2, 3 or 4 shows either through acquisitions, new partners, joint ventures or roll out from our portfolio that we have in Frankfurt.
TFT – That shows sheer growth and shows how intelligently the company is growing. We wish you all the best. Thank you for this lovely interview.