evenTech Singapore ends on a positive note
Low attendance, but high quality cite event organisers and exhibitors alike
The very first staging of evenTech Singapore took place last week in Hall 4 of the Singapore Expo and by 6.30pm on 26th June 2008 was hailed a success by exhibitors with over 1,000 key quality regional visitors passing through the doors over the two open days.
Since November last year when the concept was announced for the initial evenTech Singapore there have been many doubters who have questioned the need for another trade show in the region – by the close of play, organisers Scattered Media feel that there could be few left who still had doubts that the format and model of the inaugural evenTech Singapore exhibition had proven itself not only successful but a valuable addition to the commercial audio & professional AV industry in Southeast Asia.
“We had said all along that we firmly believed in the small intimate two day format supported by a strong well researched education programme, after the success of our inaugural UK event in February we were confident that the model we had put in place would be successful,' stated Darren Brechin, Director, Scattered Media. 'We worked extremely hard to deliver an audience that normally our exhibitors would not have access to at other trade exhibitions and we believe after what happened last week we successfully achieved our objectives.”
EvenTech was hosted at the Singapore Expo in the shadows of Changi Airport and this suited its needs perfectly, as the purpose built centre is located just 20 minutes distance from downtown Singapore. The aim of the organisers was to allow easy access for both local and international visitors alike, the venue was a key element of the marketing promotion clearly highlighting the ease with which overseas visitors could simply come for a ‘day trip’ and judging by the attendance this appears to have been a clever tactic.
Hanslee Azhar, Regional Director, Scattered Media Asia explained: “We set out to create something different, an event that would inspire visitors who would not normally attend trade exhibitions to leave their offices for a day to come and educate themselves on the new technologies in the market place. Our objective for year one was to achieve 30 individual exhibition stands and deliver 1,000 key buyers from Singapore and its neighbouring countries.
'We finished with 34 booths and 1,067 unique visitors from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, India and Thailand as well as Singapore thus I can happily say we achieved what we set out to do.
“We focused our attention on marketing to a select few opposed to marketing to the masses – we set clear messages and spent a lot of time and effort building databases from the various countries around the region so that these messages would be reaching the correct people. We wanted consultants, developers, technicians and engineers – top quality end users to attend. Our experience has told us that to deliver this type of audience, we would have to make sure we had direct access to these individuals hence our emphasis on building quality databases.”
This proved to be a successful manoeuvre as exhibitors were impressed at the quality of the attendees that visited their booths.
Loud Technologies Asia Pacific Sales Director Dawvinder Sheena commented “We have received five orders for the UMX96 console here at the show, which is staggering. Naturally, we invited many of our customers in the region to attend, but we have also met many new faces at this show.”
Similarly pleased was T J Lim, Business Development Manager of Audio-Technica SEA who said “We have met some interesting new business contacts from churches and event organisers. Being a new trade show, we didn’t really know what to expect, but have been pleasantly surprised.”
DiGiCo Marketing Director Dave Webster had taken the decision to support his regional distributor following the InfoComm show held in Las Vegas the week before added: “This trade show seems very quiet and small after InfoComm, but it works as all the visitors who come here take an interest in the SD7 and want to get their hands on it. There are no time wasters here and we have seen quite a few people from Indonesia, Malaysia and beyond.
Following his sentiments was Lab.gruppen’s Thomas Mittelmann who said “This is a really cool, relaxed show as the decibels are not drowning out the conversation, as so often happens at the big shows.”
d&b audiotechnik S.E. Asia Managing Director, Sebastian Song was of a similar frame of mind as he commented “We cannot exhibit at every trade show and like to try new concepts. It was a risk exhibiting here, but luckily it has paid off and we’ll be returning next year.”
The second staging of evenTech Singapore will take place from 1-2 July 2009 at the Singapore Expo.
eventech-singapore.com