Iraqi Reconstruction
Organizers say the show must go on in spite of security concerns
By Vanessa VanderZanden -- Tradeshow Week, 4/19/2004
Despite a deteriorating situation in Iraq and news that at least one tradeshow targeted at reconstruction efforts there has already been canceled, show managers and exhibitors say they're still interested in doing business in the war-ravaged country.
The Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Destination Baghdad Expo (DBX), scheduled for April 5-8 in Baghdad, was postponed to April 30-May 2, according to the show's Web site, because of a March 31 U.S. Consular Service travel warning that discouraged attendees from going to Baghdad. Organizers for the show, which is targeted at private companies hoping to bid on reconstruction work in Iraq, did not return phone calls or e-mails from Tradeshow Week. The travel warning stated that "the security of people attending the event could not be guaranteed and that travel to Iraq at this particular time should be avoided," according to the site.
Despite news reports of stepped-up warfare and greater instability throughout Iraq, those involved with reconstruction shows set for Iraq and other Middle East locales remain surprisingly confident the shows will go on.
Some companies, anxious to nab contracts, say they'll go to Iraq in the coming weeks regardless of the conditions or even whether there is a trade-show to exhibit in. Debra Grady, marketing director for DBX exhibitor WorldWater, said seven engineers were headed to Baghdad the week of April 12 under the supervision of its partner, Sandi Group, an Iraqi-American business development firm. Grady said her solar energy company planned to concentrate its marketing efforts more on one-on-one meetings with contract providers anyway, and approached the tradeshow merely as an adjunct.
Most of the other shows scheduled to take place in Iraq itself are not planned until autumn, presumably when show managers anticipate more favorable conditions in the country. Others, like PennWell's POWER-GEN Middle East & Iraq Reconstruction, are to be held in other locations. Nigel R. Blackaby, conference director of POWER-GEN, said his show in Bahrain on Sept. 13-15 is on schedule. "While the situation in Iraq remains as it is, a location like Bahrain is most appropriate," he said.
Blackaby would not say whether he had contacted companies planning to exhibit at DBX in an attempt to lure them to his event. However, he did say, "We have invited the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce to lend their support."
The Consular Service's March 31 warning, specifically for DBX exhibitors, reinforces a general March 23 warning that "advises Americans of continuing attacks on civilians, including American citizens," and mentions that "the Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens strongly against travel to Iraq."
Jerry Kallman, director of Kallman Global Consulting, which launched OUTREACH 2004 this past January in Amman, Jordan, said he was still mulling over the idea of holding OUTREACH 2005 next year. He said the first show spanned 56,000 net square feet, drawing 5,220 attendees and 283 exhibitors, including 26 from Iraq. He said the show went off without a hitch, thanks in part to security supplied by the Jordanian national police.
"There are so many variables," Kallman said. "We did the show this year in five months, so we could still do it now in eight months."
Expomedia Group is holding a series of Doing Business in Iraq conferences throughout Europe and the Middle East this year, supposedly culminating in an Iraq Rebuild Exhibition to be held in November in Baghdad. Expomedia did not return phone calls or e-mails from Tradeshow Week. Kallman noted, "They had a very grandiose plan."
