An epidemic caused the development of the convention and exhibition industry that has been in full swing in recent years. The good news is that with the help of emerging Internet technologies such as the Internet, big data, and cloud platforms, the domestic exhibition industry is slowly recovering, and a new era of "online exhibitions" is ushering in. 1. Platform transformation. At the same time, the "online + offline" two-way integration exhibition mode will become the general trend in the future.
Exhibitions have "moved" to the Internet
On April 16, the Ministry of Commerce announced that the 127th China Import and Export Fair (hereinafter referred to as the "Canton Fair") will be held online from June 15 to 24 for a period of 10 days.
It is understood that this is the first time that the Canton Fair has been held online in 63 years. Since its establishment in 1957, the Canton Fair has become China's first foreign trade promotion platform, and is the window, epitome and symbol of China's opening up.
The Ministry of Commerce stated that holding Canton Fair on the Internet is an innovative measure to actively respond to the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, and strive to stabilize the basic foreign capital of foreign trade. .
The technical support behind the holding of the online Canton Fair is the focus. It is reported that Tencent, as the technical service provider of the 127th Canton Fair, will provide overall technical support, platform research and development services and cloud resource support for the Canton Fair online hosting, so that Chinese and foreign merchants can place orders and do business without leaving the house.
In fact, under the epidemic, online exhibitions have become the industry trend. On April 17, the 14th China Nut Roasted Food Exhibition opened in 2020, but unlike the past, this exhibition moved to the Internet, and it was also the first time that the exhibition was held online.
Earlier on the morning of April 14th, the "China-Latin America (Mexico) International Trade Digital Exhibition" had just opened in Beijing. This exhibition was also held online for 15 days.
More and more exhibitions will be moved online. It is understood that since the Beijing Online Exhibition Development Alliance was formed on March 23, China International Health Industry Expo, Beijing International Sanitation and Municipal Facilities and Cleaning Equipment Exhibition, and Beijing Science and Technology Epidemic Prevention Materials Export Online Exhibition Three exhibition projects confirmed that online exhibitions will be held through the alliance.
Earlier, on April 13, the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Notice on Innovating Exhibition Service Models and Cultivating the Development of New Momentum for the Exhibition Industry". It pointed out that we must actively build a new online exhibition platform, promote innovation in exhibition formats, and actively guide and mobilize. And support enterprises to hold online exhibitions, make full use of modern information technology means such as 5G, VR / AR, big data, hold "cloud exhibition", carry out "cloud exhibition", "cloud docking", "cloud negotiation", "cloud contract" To enhance the effects of display, promotion and negotiation.
Shenzhen is planning to build
Digital Exhibition Service Platform
Affected by the epidemic, most exhibitions in the domestic exhibition industry were postponed or cancelled, and many practitioners were also forced to be on vacation.
"We have been on holiday, during which there is only a basic salary of 3,000 yuan, no performance salary and overtime salary, the specific holiday duration is to be determined." A person in Shenzhen's exhibition industry disclosed to the Securities Times · e company reporter.
"All exhibitions in the first quarter and some exhibitions in the second quarter have been postponed, merged, or even canceled, causing major losses to the organizers, venues and exhibitors, as well as the entire industrial chain, which will affect enterprises in many industries in product promotion, trade and technical exchanges. To influence. "Li Yayi, chief operating officer of Reed Exhibitions Greater China, said that there is no doubt that this outbreak has had a huge impact and impact on the entire Chinese exhibition industry and is also one of the industries most affected by this outbreak.
According to the "Research Report on the Convention and Exhibition Industry's Response to the New Crown Epidemic" released by the China Convention and Exhibition Economic Research Association, industry experts estimated that there were nearly 3,500 domestic exhibitions affected by the epidemic from February to April this year, involving an exhibition area of 50 million square meters and output value. Above 200 billion yuan, the impact of the outbound exhibition is even more serious. If the event cannot be resumed in an orderly manner in May and June, the situation will worsen.
In order to reduce the impact of the epidemic on enterprises, currently major domestic venues have successively launched active measures to help industry chain enterprises to share the epidemic and reduce losses.
The reporter learned from the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center and Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center that the venue has launched a number of enterprise-friendly policies. For the exhibition that was originally scheduled to be held from February to April, the exhibition was postponed due to the impact of the epidemic. The rental payment period of the organizer ’s venue was relaxed and the exhibition area was reduced. Or canceled exhibition is not considered as a breach of contract, and the relevant merchants are exempted from rent for 2 to 3 months.
In addition, during the epidemic period, Shenzhen has taken the lead in launching a digital outreach service platform nationwide to assist overseas outreach units in need to do a good job in mitigating the new coronary pneumonia epidemic situation and expanding the international market after a fundamental improvement to boost outbound foreign trade. The platform includes digital information, digital display, digital matching, big data mining, digital public services, etc. After an enterprise logs in, as long as it registers the outreach unit under the column of “enterprise settlement” and uploads enterprise information, product information, etc., the “enterprise exhibition hall” in the digital exhibition hall can be established. The system also uses big data to push and match supply and demand companies to help companies find more favorable development opportunities in crises and challenges.
In addition, a reporter from the Securities Times · e Company learned exclusively from relevant sources that in order to boost the city's convention and exhibition industry faster, Shenzhen is currently leading the establishment of a digital exhibition service platform led by the Shenzhen Municipal Trade Promotion Committee.
"Purchasing services will be promoted online in the early exhibitions. After all, we set up an" online exhibition "service. The goal is to help exhibitors acquire customers and help the project make money. It is not a show that adapts to the situation." The above-mentioned person disclosed to the Securities Times · e company reporter.
Go hand in hand online and offline
General trend
With the rise of online exhibitions, the integration of online and offline exhibitions is expected to become the future trend of the industry.
Shenzhen International Chamber of Commerce has dominated many offline exhibitions every year for many years. The relevant person in charge told the Securities Times · e company reporter that in order to respond to the epidemic, Shenzhen International Chamber of Commerce plans to choose the official website of the chamber of commerce or the official website of the exhibition or the online platform of a well-known exhibition company in 2020. The methods of online display, online matchmaking, and online negotiation focus on the exhibition-related work. In the future, with the end of the epidemic, it is expected to gradually transition to a combination of online + offline exhibition management mode.
The Chongqing National Expo Center and Yuelai International Conference Center said that during the epidemic, they have increased the pace of exploration. "Online + offline" fusion exhibitions, VR exploration halls, VR meetings and other smart applications have landed.
Mio Convention & Exhibition, the first listed company in the domestic convention and exhibition industry, has created an exhibition mode combining "online + offline" for many years. On March 31, the company's executives said at their 2019 performance briefing that the strategic layout of Miorante's offline and online dual-line exhibition model has become increasingly clear for many years of continuous innovation and development, and this year During the epidemic situation, it completed the construction of public service platforms for digital foreign trade in nine provinces and cities including "Shenzhen Digital Outreach", "Suzhou Digital Foreign Trade", "Jinhua Digital Foreign Trade", and "Jiangxi Digital Foreign Trade". It will continue to explore international markets in the future "Online and offline" exhibition service mode.
"The so-called online is first and foremost an online function, which can be widely used by exhibitions to form a beneficial complement of online and offline." Zhang Lan, Senior Vice President of Reed Exhibitions Greater China, pointed out that there are many successful online platforms, and The exhibition company formed a competitive relationship. However, as a unique advantage of the exhibition company, it is not only necessary to obtain more effective data online, but also to connect online and offline data to realize the data and visualization of the entire user life cycle. In addition, with the improvement of data capabilities, exhibition companies should strive to make themselves a service provider for key value creation in their industry.
Looking to the future, Li Yayi, Chief Operating Officer of Reed Exhibitions Greater China, believes that the impact of the epidemic on China's convention and exhibition industry is temporary. After the epidemic, the convention and exhibition industry will soon return to normal, and merchants' demand for exhibiting and visiting in the second half of the year will be stronger , More targeted, the service quality of the exhibition after the postponement of integration and the effect of participation will be better. At the same time, after the epidemic, the development of online business activities and e-commerce products and services of merchants will further develop. The exhibition industry will accelerate the digitization process. Customers are more willing to try digital products. China's exhibition industry will present a new situation of "going hand in hand" online and offline.
