Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Alibaba.com launches trade show programme

Alibaba.com has announced the launch of a trade show partnership programme which Senior Director Brian Wong described at the UFI Asia/Pacific Seminar in Hong Kong today as the B2B equivalent of combining match.com and a romantic restaurant.

The announcement says:

The launch of the Alibaba.com Trade Show Partnership Program marks an
industry turning point where, instead of regarding each other as competitors,
trade show organizers and online marketplaces work together to grow both their
businesses.
A question to Wong from another speaker at the UFI event, David Cong of MeetExpo.com, would suggest that there may be a way to go still before the trust is complete although Alibaba is at pains to suggest that it has no intentions of going into the trade show business itself. Cong asked why organisers could not do themselves what Alibaba.com does online.

Full disclosure: the Alibaba.com release includes a quotation from me:

Industry analysts agree that with increased competition in Asia's trade
show sector, trade show organizers who adopt innovative media strategies will
have an edge over the competition. Paul Woodward, Business Strategies Group
(BSG) founder and a veteran of business development in Asia with over 20 years
experience in the region, said: ''The Chinese exhibitions industry has been
growing at over 20% a year for the past five to 10 years. It is increasingly
important for trade show organizers to distinguish the quality of their events
with much more sophisticated communications programs and doing so with the
right media partner.''

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