Online Exhibition: New Format Or Content Becomes The Main Theme

"Online exhibitions, platforms are important, and traffic flow is more important." Fei Jianming, Director of the Foreign Trade Promotion Division of Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said at the online exhibition development status and trends seminar (hereinafter referred to as the seminar) held today, offline The exhibition has been transformed into an online exhibition, and the format has changed.

Affected by the global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, when all offline exhibitions are "shut down", in order to support foreign trade companies to overcome difficulties, stabilize orders, and expand markets, relevant departments and local governments are actively preparing online digital exhibitions. Among them, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade held the first digital exhibition after the outbreak of the global epidemic on April 14-China-Latin America (Mexico) International Trade Digital Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as China-Latin America Trade Digital Exhibition), and Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce on April 28 Organized the 2020 Ningbo Export Commodities Global Online Exhibition, etc., and built online digital trading platforms for foreign trade companies.

It is undeniable that online exhibitions are a new format, an innovation forced by the epidemic. As there is no relevant industry standard and no model to learn from, the Commercial Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade organized this seminar to promote exchanges and cooperation in the industry and discuss the confusion and experience in the organization of online exhibitions.

According to Fan Peikang, editor-in-chief of China Trade News, the digital innovation model of exhibitions must be carried out in the three aspects of "content is king, platform construction, and team collaboration". Only when the troika is built can the guest shoppers be online.

Accelerate transformation and innovation

In mid-April, the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce issued the “Notice on Innovating Exhibition Service Models and Cultivating New Drivers for the Development of the Exhibition Industry”, which pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the transformation, upgrading and innovative development of the exhibition industry, and actively build a new platform for online exhibitions to promote online Integrated development of online and offline exhibitions, and cultivating leading online exhibition companies and brand exhibitions.

"Through the database, the digital exhibition has achieved precise matching of buyers and sellers." Zhang Bo, deputy director of the Exhibition and Conference Office of the Trade and Investment Promotion Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, introduced that during the China-Latin America Trade Digital Exhibition, the trade volume reached US$8.02 million, and the transaction was intentional. The amount is 48.24 million US dollars. There were 2,265 exhibitors, a total of 24,506 visitors, and a total of 46,230 visitors. Exhibitors received 3290 inquiries, viewed 2570 inquiries, and responded to 2631 inquiries. Buyers posted 637 purchase information, exhibitors viewed 445 purchase information, and made 356 targeted quotations. Exhibitors received 5151 buyer recommendations and 3860 buyer recommendations.

According to online data, exhibitors inquired about 10417 basic buyer information and generated 19,495 trade information. In addition, during the exhibition, 1083 video conferences were invited and 488 video conferences were confirmed.

Fei Jianming introduced that Ningbo Online Exhibition has iterated from the initial "video conference call" to the 3.0 model. In the next step, Ningbo will provide services for small and medium foreign trade enterprises, go all out to stabilize foreign trade, and strive to complete the goal and task of an export-oriented economy throughout the year.

Urgent need for policy support

"With Internet companies such as BAT holding high the banner of cloud exhibitions and entering the exhibition industry, digital innovation in the traditional exhibition industry has become the only development path." Fan Peikang said that with the entry of Internet giants, whether it is "dancing with wolves" or " "Dancing with wolves" will bring a fiercer competition to the traditional exhibition industry.

Fan Peikang pointed out in his keynote speech "Digitalization: Inspiring New Momentums for Exhibitions" that the epidemic has broken the spatial pattern of exhibitions, and the digitalization of the exhibition industry urgently needs innovation from content to form, from the organizational level to the business level. It is also urgent that exhibition organizers, organizations, etc. urgently need to carry out an operation team that adapts to the digital economy era in order to realize the online, visual, and socialized operation mode of exhibition services as soon as possible.

At the same time, Fan Peikang emphasized the need to encourage the digital transformation of the convention and exhibition industry, encourage small and medium-sized convention and exhibition companies to actively transform and upgrade, and call on the convention and exhibition authority to provide policy and financial support for the "new convention and exhibition infrastructure".

"Convention and exhibition industry service standards, there is no standard for online exhibitions." Yao Xin, Secretary-General of the Commercial Industry Committee of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Service Trade Branch of China Standards Association, introduced that he is currently thinking about the development of the "Online Exhibition Service Guide" standard.

According to reports, the group standard of "Online Exhibition Service Guide" will be set up for the global exhibition Hitachi on June 3. It is planned to be released at the end of September and will enter the stage of publicity and implementation of the group standards in early October. The Commercial Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade will cooperate with relevant units of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to carry out the "Online Exhibition Service Guide" group standards related opinions collection and feedback.

Build a service platform

According to Fei Jianming, on April 20th, Ningbo held the 2020 Ningbo Export Commodities Global Online Exhibition (special exhibition on anti-epidemic materials export), and opened up the “through train” exported by Ningbo foreign trade enterprises in the “square cabin exhibition hall” model, adding impetus to Ningbo foreign trade. .

This online exhibition is an attempt by Ningbo foreign trade companies to stabilize orders, expand the market, and secure share through the online mode. It is also an innovative way to solve the problem of multiple constraints of online exhibitions.

42 buyers from more than 20 countries including the United States, Russia, Italy and 55 Ningbo suppliers used video conferencing for cloud negotiations.

The “square cabin exhibition hall” model implemented this time is the first in the country. It aims to combine online and offline to provide hardware support for online exhibitors and lay the foundation for the next step in the organization of the “Canton Fair Online” and “Consumer Online Fair”.

It is reported that the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade will build a digital exhibition public service platform, which will provide overseas exhibition approval and filing services, realize the full-process management of financial funds for exhibition projects, expand the influence of the digital exhibition platform in the industry, and provide public service functions.

According to reports, the digital exhibition platform aims to integrate online and offline, connect domestic and international, serve Chinese and foreign enterprises, and build a trade promotion platform.

Content Source: China Trade News Author: LanXin