Catching up

Well, so much for posting while I was in Korea. Not problems with the technology there, of course. Just my time management!

We had an excellent week in Seoul. The 2nd UFI Open Seminar went off really well and there was lots of good interaction between our 190 participants from 18 countries. It snowed pretty hard on the day before (Wednesday) and a bit again on Thursday but that didn't slow things down.

We had great presenters including thought-provoking insights on the way in which venue operators need to be thinking in the future from Belgium's Eric Préart of Easyfairs and Suntec Singapore's Warren Buckley. Préart offered a check list of features for his ideal venue which would essentially be an empty box with multiple highly flexible features and services allowing it to be customised to the needs of very different types of events. The NEC's Michael Watton from the UK raised a few eyebrows by describing how what was once one of the UK's dreariest public facilities now aspires to become an "entertainment brand". Buckley talked about the challenges facing venues in a constant need to reinvent themselves.

Korea has eight major exhibition venues and delegates got a chance to visit both the host of the seminar, COEX and the newest and largest KINTEX. UFI's Asia/Pacific Chapter Chairman Chen Xianjin is seen in this picture at Kintex pointing out something that obviously caught his eye to other visitors from China.