2007 Event Industry Survey
As the event industry faces a busy end of year period, do you still remember the major events of 2007? How will the event industry change next year?
Looking back over 2007, the event industry has seem major happenings, including the demise of the “Yilan International Children’s Festival”, the “opening of the Taiwan high speed railway” and the “announcement of the official opening of the Nangang Exhibition Hall next year.” This issue’s Special Report is the “2007 Event Industry Survey.” The report will look back on 2007 and look ahead to 2008, to give readers an understanding of the overall performance of the event industry and its development.
Questionnaires were mainly sent to members of Taiwan Convention and Exhibition Association, Taipei Exhibition & Convention Association and Taipei City Public Relations Association, and also involved interviews to enrich the survey and report.
Marketing and public relations
1. Which mass marketing event gave you the deepest impression in 2007
“The plebiscite on UN entry for Taiwan attracted a lot of attention because it used the emotions of the whole of society” said Senior Chief Operating Director Lin Bo-hu of Veda International Corp. Comparing society’s emotions as a wave and marketing to surfing, he said “If you catch the wave you can surf a long way and do it beautifully”.
Tina Sung, General Manager of Universal Public Relations Co., said that in 2007 the Taipei International Flower Exhibition was promoted and placement activities carried out early on, however, because the event theme was not displayed clearly enough, the number of people attending was down on the previous exhibition. In contrast, the Pineapple Cake Festival had a limited budget, but benefits extended to sales and industry.
2. What factors influenced business leaders in terms of event marketing willingness this year? Why?
Many respondents believed that the “Lack of clarity in the overall economic environment” was a very important factor, making enterprises take a cautious approach towards marketing budgets. Huang Ding-ling, Chief Operating Officer of Pilot Group, explained that politics, policy and Taiwan and China’s market layout all influenced enterprise investment willingness.
“Lack of clarity in the overall economic environment highlights the need for and importance of high precision marketing activities” said Lin Bo-hu. Today, PR companies must understand where the investment return is and what level of enquiry and participation can be achieved.
The event and PR industry in 20008
He Ling-hua, General Manager of Indeed Marketing Communications Consultancy, said that the overall economy is in recession, however, because of the recession enterprises will spend money on PR and websites, hoping to create maximum benefit from limited expenditure. The instability on the political front made Huang Ding-ling have a cautious view of next year’s prospects. “Affected by political fever, the wait-and- see effect thinking in the market will last until March 2008,” he said. The media is now full of political news and the political issues that the public are concerned about, making enterprise very careful with their budgets and many are considering delaying marketing activities until May next year.
Deputy General Manager of K Concepts communications consultants, Hu Ling-wen, thought that the situation next year will be similar to this year. Many people think that the situation will improve after the election, however, the industry cycle has to be taken into account and the rebound might not happen immediately.
Conferences and exhibitions
1 How did the event industry develop overall this year? Why?
Chan Chao International Co.,Ltd’s CEO Lin Mao-ting said that this year Taiwan still did not have a new exhibition venue and the performance of existing venues was average, with no marked growth overall. The economic recession reduced people’s willingness to attend exhibitions and consumer exhibitions saw a decline.
UNIPLAN Genera Manager Michael Tu pointed out that the economic recession weakened domestic demand and the event industry overall was at a standstill. There was no increase in the number of exhibitions and the number of foreign visitors fell.
Basing her opinions on government data and her economic observations, Patti Tang, General Manager of Willy Event Consultants Co., Ltd. PCO, thought that because the event industry is different to other industries it requires years of observation and, although the benefit of incentive measures implemented by the government over the last few years is still not clear, she believes the industry will recover slowly.
2. In this year’s news, which story had the biggest influence on the event industry? Why?
Michael Tu said that the Nangang Exhibition Hall will completely change the exhibition environment. The space for exhibitions will increase almost 100% and “How to create exhibitions in such a large space” is an issue to be faced. He also pointed out that is important to know how to grasp opportunities. Lin Mao-ting also said the Nangang Exhibition Hall will be a major change in the overall event industry and many people have high hopes of it.
“Opening of the high speed railway” was chosen because it has changed conference locations. CEO of Round Table PCO, Richard Ko said, in the past, the distribution of conference locations can be described as “good in the north, poor in the south, few in central Taiwan,” however, with the convenience of the Taiwan high speed railway, the choice of location has increased significantly.
3. What will be the event industry’s overall situation next year? Why?
Michael Tu, UNIPLAN Taiwan Corp General Manager, is not too optimistic about the situation in 2008, with lack of political stability the main factor. He said, after the Presidential election in March, the political environment with clarify, but it will take some time before the new President takes office. In addition, the recession has affected the value of the NT$, making exhibition participation costs rise, leading a number of companies to abandon plans to attend overseas exhibitions.
Chan Chao International Co.,Ltd’s CEO Lin Mao-ting predicted that the prospects for the event industry next year would be “average tending towards poor:” Basing his analysis on four indicators, “industrial power,” “domestic market demand”, “policy support” and “industrial unity,” he said that Taiwan is seeing a rapid worsening of these four indicators.
Patty Tang said we will have to wait and see before the state of the industry overall next year can be clearly seen. However, with investment she believes there will be rewards.
