Publication date: 15 May 2008
Reed is putting a lot of effort into developing business in BRIC countries, and one of our priorities is to strengthen our leadership role in our core sectors, including electronics manufacturing. We are pleased that Nepcon has been established as the leading brand in Asia for the electronics manufacturing industry; our new launches in India and Vietnam compliment our growth strategy. Reed organizes 12 Nepcon events in Asia that offer a series of excellent marketing platforms for our customers. Most of these are the leading events in the region, such as Internepcon in Japan, Nepcon China in China, Nepcon India in India, Nepcon Korea and Globaltronics in Singapore. Reed is committed to growing our business together with our customers. The recent launch in Vietnam is not only helping Reed to grow but also is helping our customers develop their business in this very promising emerging market.
Nepcon is a very successful brand and is one of the most influential brands globally in the electronics manufacturing sector. The number of visitors that attended Nepcon China 08 has increased by 9% from last year. Like any successful story, it is due to many factors. First, we made an effort to understand our customers and our customers’ customers. We invested heavily in understanding our visitors and building relationships with them. By organizing the Nepcon events in China for more than 20 years and running three Nepcon events per year, we have an exclusive advantage in contacting our visitors almost monthly. We understand the market, the buyers, what they want to buy and how they buy. This is the key for any exhibition to be successful. A full team works with the visitors throughout the year to ensure that their objectives in visiting the event are met. We constantly review our customers’ touch points to make sure they are happy with all our services provided. Second, we have been very successful in building a strong SMT community. Thanks to the support of the key players, Nepcon China has been able to showcase all the global SMT brands, and by bringing the SMT world to the doorstep of the Chinese buyers, Nepcon China is the most cost-effective platform for the Chinese buyers to source and make business contacts. Finally, Nepcon has developed a strong alliance with many global SMT-related associations and trade media such as SMTA in USA, SMTA in China, CCPIT, Ministry of information and Technology plus all the major SMT committees in China. Nepcon China is truly an event that connects the SMT Community in China.
Nepcon China in Shanghai is a national event for China. Most of the exhibitors will launch their new products for the China market at this event. At the same time, most of the major annual events for the SMT industry are held her also, such as the Vision Award Presentation Ceremony, EM Innovation Award Presentation Ceremony, SMTA Annual meeting and SMTA China annual Gala Dinner. Nepcon South China in Shenzhen is a regional event that focuses on the South China market while BEW (an event within the Nepcon series) targets the North China market. As the targeted markets are different, the exhibits profile is also slightly different to meet the different needs of the buyers.
Reed will continue to strengthen the leading position of Nepcon in Asia. We will continue to work closely with our customers to improve their return on investment innovatively. Also, we will invest in new events in Asia to support the strategic growth of the Nepcon brand. This includes new show launches that bring new groups of visitors to the current Nepcon event as well as looking at new markets where our customers are keen to expand their market share.
The Vietnamese government is promoting growth in the electronics industry, so we have received great cooperation from the local government and trade promotion bodies. We have been visiting Vietnamese electronics manufacturers to get insight on their needs. We believe that NepconVietnam will not only answer their requirements but also will introduce new concepts, trends and ideas that will be complemented by new technologies and experts who can help them move forward and, in the process, strengthen the Vietnamese electronics supporting industry. After the event, the level of the electronics manufacturing industry should rise, and there should be more electronics parts and components manufactured inside the country as opposed to importing them.
The consideration for selecting a venue always depends on the preference of exhibitors and visitors. We understand the concerns of our exhibitors on the current venue but if we need to make a move, we need to ensure it will not affect the quality and the quantity of the visitors. Eventually, the exhibitors are investing to make business contacts.
We are very pleased to be working with world-class trade associations like SMTA International and SMTA China because they are extremely professional in organizing technical conferences. We are committed to providing the China SMT community with an effective platform in training, exchanging new ideas and fostering technology advancement. Currently, we are working together on three major SMTA conferences a year (SMTA China East Conference, SMTA China South Conference and SMTA China North Conference) plus vendor conferences alongside three Nepcon events in China. We are also looking at other possibilities and working together with the industry players to organize roadshows and technical workshops throughout the year. We share the same objective in serving the SMT industry and aim to connect the SMT community in China.
The event organized by MMI is not new, it has been running in China for six years but it is not a fully SMT focused event. A number of our exhibitors have tried exhibiting in the past but they have come back to us again. IPC has an existing event in South China but Shanghai market is new for them. The show is co-locating with Semicon and CPCA. The targeted visitor groups for three events are not really the same. In the end, all exhibitors will evaluate their return by measuring the number of right visitors they have met on show floor especially those with buying needs. Exhibitors do not want to waste their time on meeting people that have no interest in their products. Bringing tens of thousands of visitors to an event is not difficult, but eventually, how many of them are really in the SMT industry? We always put our focus in bringing value to our exhibitors and enhance their return on investment. Bringing the right people to the event is very important. Take the NEPCON China events as an example, during the week of the show, there are many events running along side with NEPCON which includes industry’s awards, SMTA’s conference which is fully supported by NEPCON, certification programs, and NOKIA’s recruitment event. According to our recent visitors’ survey, 90% of our visitors expressed that Nepcon China is the key event in the SMT industry and 85% of them felt that Nepcon China is an event that they cannot afford to miss. More importantly, 75% of them believe that Nepcon China is very important to their business. It showed that the industry has very strong emotional attachment to NEPCON. This is something that cannot be built overnight. NEPCON China has been running for over 20 years and currently runs three events a year in China. Not only we have developed an extensive visitors’ database, but we a very strong relationship with the visitors.
We will work with SMTA China to build an even more powerful conference program as well as a series of effective networking programs. We also will work with the exhibitors to conduct more pre-show promotional activities. It is really crucial that our exhibitors maximize their return on investment at the event. Last, but not least, we will look at implementing a series of new measures to improve services such as controlling the onsite noise level and continue to attract more visitors in attending the event.
