Reed his lips

Editor's note: Chairman and CEO of Reed Exhibitions Worldwide Mike Rusbridge spent a week in China late last month (November) inspecting the Hong Kong market, signing strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai World Expo (Group) Co Ltd, and attending the first Reed Exhibitions Greater China Summit.

During his visit in Beijing, Rusbridge shared his views with China Business Weekly reporter Liu Jie on the impact of global financial crisis on the exhibition industry and what Reed Exhibitions will do to improve its China business.

Q: Has Reed Exhibitions been affected by the current international financial turmoil? What about your business in China?

A: It is certainly going to have an impact. We are not alone. I have just come from an exhibition industrial conference held in Istanbul with 390 people from different organizations around the world. We have the common sense that all of us are beginning to see softness at the end of 2008 and it will be a challenge next year.

I don't suppose it's a surprise to you to say that in the United States and a number of countries in Europe, as they are moving into recession, the exhibition industry is affected. But in some of the emerging markets, like China, Brazil and the Middle East, we still see great growth opportunities.

We are fortunate that we are in 38 countries, we are in 47 industries, so that gives us a certain resilience. Certainly, there are some countries suffering, there are some industries suffering, but we have that strength and depth to weather this quite well.

I am delighted to say that growth of our China business will be 20 percent this year, and we are optimistic about good growth next year.

Q: You are very optimistic about and confident on Reed Exhibitions' business in China, why?

A: As life becomes more competitive, as the market becomes tougher, customers are going to expect very high-level services, talks with world-class audience, and well-trained staff. We are very committed to delivering all of those.

There are some other points. One is the size of China's domestic market. I think it's a good credit to the response of the Chinese government in boosting or encouraging the local demand. We are very fortunate, as most of our shows in China actually are oriented to domestic demand, so we will be in good shape.

It's also true that when there is less money available, and companies are forced to make choices, they will support the market leading events. We are confident, as majority of our shows are actually fine enough. Though there's a slowdown in the economy, that's actually to our advantage because people chase high-quality shows.

I think it's also true that we remain committed to our partners here, and we are very interested in further acquisitions. If anything we think what is important in the next couple of years, it is that we will probably offer more opportunities for local counterparts.

So we are optimistic and confident.

Q: Would you like to reveal your further merger and acquisition plans in China? And do you have some new events here?

A: Every time I am here, I get the questions that "what are you going to buy" and "what are you going to launch". Unfortunately my response may be that if I tell you that, I tell everybody else. I would give my secrets away.

So I obviously cannot be specific about whom we are in discussions with, but I can say we are going to make several more acquisitions in the fairly near future and we have got some exciting launches. We have to be making announcements for some of those within the next month or two. Sorry, I cannot give you more information, but I will when we are ready.

Q: You are a convention and exhibition veteran, what do you think the Chinese government should do to orient the exhibition industry?

A: First, I applaud the Chinese government for a very aggressive package to stimulate domestic demand. It's going to be good for exhibition industry, certainly for us, because several of our shows are for domestic market.

If you look at what governments are doing in Europe, in America, where they are worried about small and medium-sized companies, who may have credit and cash issues, there are packages being introduced to protect and, hopefully, allow them to survive. And I don't know if there might be similar plans (in China) for the casualties in small and medium-sized businesses area. If so, that will be very helpful and certainly good for us.

Specifically for our exhibition industry, the government should take the Chinese exhibition industry to the next level, a world-class level. I think there have been various suggestions made by various authorities to say that you should introduce standards. We would be very supportive of this! As the Chinese exhibition industry comes of age, I think it's time to raise the standards.

Q: We have seen that for some exhibitions in China, the number of overseas buyers dropped, so how will Reed Exhibitions deal with such an issue next year?

A: To answer your question, I think there are several things involved. I don't think international buyers are going to stop coming (to China).

Not everywhere is in financial difficulty, therefore what we will be doing is focusing on BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies that are still fairly buoyant, and we will be more selective. We are working to put together packages to make it easier, and cost-effective for more international buyers to come to our shows.

As I said we are in a very fortunate position that majority of our events are really oriented towards (China's) domestic market, therefore our primary focus is on delivering broad products for domestic market in China.

For example, our gift fairs recently held in Shenzhen and Beijing, I would say, are doing very well, while some export-oriented shows are not.

So, as we are focusing on Chinese market demand, we don't worry about a drop in buyers.

(China Daily 12/08/2008 page6)