Focusing on the regions

A number of clients and others in the industry have been complaining more and more vehemently to me that there are no good opportunities left in the 3 key centres of B2B media and events in China; Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. This may or may not be true (probably not).

However, there is a solution. It is hard to convince far-away bosses, particularly in the small countries of Europe, that there are good opportunities in China's regions. But there obviously are. A city of 2 million people is considered "small" in China and there are absolutely tons of them.

I was interested then to receive a press release from my friend Sam Chambers about a new initiative he has set up with several others with a background in the shipping and freight media. It tells us that "City Connect is a unique platform connecting [China's] inland city governments, multinationals, and freight transport providers under one roof for two-day events, focusing on improving supply chains out of individual strategic transport hubs". They're planning conferences in Chongqing, Wuhan and Chengdu this year. If all goes to plan, additional cities will be added in 2008 including Kunming, Nanjing, and Harbin, as well as a launch in Vietnam.

Good luck guys. There will, for sure, be more ventures of this type. And why not start in the city of Chongqing (other than the fact that it is currently under water)? It's population of 30 million makes it bigger than all but a handful of countries in Europe.