Gitex hopes for footfall gain despite slump

Dubai: Every year, in the weeks before it opens, speculation runs rampant about Gitex. Will it be better than last year? Who will - or won't - be at the show?

But Helal Saeed Al Marri, the director general of the Dubai World Trade Centre, the organisation that runs Gitex, didn't seem worried as he spoke to Gulf News just days before the opening.

Speculation aside, what matters to Al Marri is that Gitex remains one of the biggest shows in the Gulf region, and it is still THE tech show.

"If you look at the buzz around Gitex, it hasn't diminished," he says.

"Underlying growth in this region is still massive. People come to Gitex to go beyond Dubai. They want the regional exposure."

In fact, he says that demand and attendance at the show are only going to increase, not despite the currently economic crisis, but because of it.

"Companies are looking very carefully at marketing spending, and they're looking at high growth areas, and this area ranks as one of the highest in the world," he says, adding that "not even one" client has cancelled. This year the Dubai World Trade Centre is expecting 130,000 visitors. Exhibitor space is sold out with 3,300 companies from 83 countries attending the show.

No complacency

But Al Marri isn't being complacent either, and he claims that Gitex has no competitors. Even the addition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which hosts one of the largest consumer electronics shows in the world, and recently added its name to the Hometech in Dubai, doesn't faze him.

"We want them to be successful. How they are successful is up to them."

But will Gitex sit at the top of regional trade shows? Al Marri's staff is still looking for ways to improve the show, avoid some previous mishaps, and even correct some misconceptions.

The show is organising a number of events, including Gitex Technology Week, a networking event for ICT professionals, Gitex Majlis, a business programme for CEOs and other high-level executives, and the Gitex Digital Game World, a new event that will take place at Gitex Shopper.

Al Marri said that it isn't always easy to predict how successful new events will be, but last year when the Gitex Majlis was introduced, the staff anticipated that 200 executives would sign up. While they were hoping to build the event to 1,500 in about four years, 2,000 executives signed up last year.

While the events have proved positive, the timing of last year's show wasn't. The event was held in the summer, and he admits there was some "summer fatigue" during the show.

"That's not going to happen again," he says. Obviously, this has been avoided this year by scheduling the show in the second half of October.

Last year also saw headlines surrounding the withdrawal of big names, such as LG, Canon and Microsoft, but Al Marri said that reflects not a waning interest in the show, but instead is just a result of the cycle of product releases and changes in the ICT industry.

"Last year Microsoft wasn't there," he says. "This year they're back to support the release of the Ford Flex and Sync." Sync is an in-car computer system being shipped in certain Ford models. But despite the loss of some brands, others have risen to fill the space. This year Google and Dell will both be making their first appearance at the show, he says.

In fact, demand for space at the show is causing some growing pains. While the number of exhibitors is increasing, Al Marri says, the gross exhibition space is not. The exhibition is limited to 64,000 square metres until a new facility opens in 2010.

"Being constrained on space at this point is challenging, because we can't give customers what they want," he says. But when asked whether anyone has complained, he responds "Not really. We're working closely with clients to make sure everyone has the appropriate stand. All of our top exhibitors have the space they want. Our top customers, the top 250 who support the show, they are out top priority."

But clients have other complaints which Al Marri says the show has taken steps to address them.

Quality of customers

One of the companies' concerns is the quality of customers who attended the show. Beginning last year, Al Marri says the show began trying to improve the "visitor profile" to make sure visitors at the show were there to do business, not just to look around.

"Last year the visitor profile was better," he said. "We were a lot stricter at the gate on people being B2B [business to business]." He said a customer survey last year showed a 75 per cent approval rating on visitor quality. The show will continue to monitor its attendees this year, he added.

While Al Marri and his staff are trying to improve the show by looking at the past; they are also looking ahead to the future.

"We've tried to go into more depth on this event. Now as the market becomes more sophisticated, the event industry has to be as well."

So that means trying to produce a show that has something for everyone, every hour, for five days straight. According to Al Marri, that's important to attracting business, which would prefer to come to one large event rather than several small ones.

"They want to focus on a mega-event," he said. "They don't want a two-three day event."

But, he said, at the end the industry will still dictate how the show evolves, not the World Trade Centre.