CEMS Games

We have believed for quite a while now that the entertainment and leisure industries were an under-developed area for business media in Asia. As the larger countries in the region become wealthier, the more developed economies like Singapore and Hong Kong play an increasingly important role in serving their leisure interests.

So, it was with some interest and no great surprise that we saw the announcement (just re-issued in Singapore) from Singapore exhibitions pioneer CEMS that it is teaming up with Leipziger Messe to launch the Games Convention Asia 2007 in Singapore this September.

In the press announcement, the two companies note "According to PricewaterhouseCoopers the Asian games market is projected to grow to US$23 billion by 2009 while the wireless market in Asia is expected to exceed 230 million mobile gamers spending over US$5 billion a year by 2009. The subscription market is expected to exceed US$7 billion".

These types of events can be more complex than traditional trade shows and we see that there will be competitions to attract the enthusiasts as well as - taking the lead from the fair in Leipzig - separate b2b and public sections. I believe that more organisers will be following CEMS and its partners into this segment.