Hong Kong Dots the Eyes

City plays host to the largest Asian jewelry exhibition in history

By Michael Hart -- Tradeshow Week, 10/11/2004

Hong Kong—In most cases, tradeshows in the United States begin fairly unceremoniously: Somebody opens the door and starts scanning badges.

Mexican tradeshows start — typically, albeit very ceremoniously — with a number of stem-winding speeches by important figures before somebody cuts a ribbon with a big, big pair of scissors.

In China, they save the speeches for later, but there is indeed a ceremony: The eyes get dotted. So it was Sept. 19 as CMP Asia President and CEO Peter Sutton and a handful of Hong Kong jewelry industry association leaders each took paintbrushes and applied red paint to the eyes of a pair of huge, elaborate lion masks.

"If you don't do that, the lion can't move," said Jennifer Law, regional corporate communications manager for CMP Asia.

Nor, apparently, could the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Watch Fair, Asia's largest jewelry show, open at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre — until a couple of dozen acrobats dressed as lions and dragons, and a dozen percussionists, conducted a traditional, very noisy, parade throughout the 64,000 square meter (690,000 square foot) center. "It drives away the devil," Law said.

That's about all it drove away as 37,755 attendees poured into the convention center and more than 1,900 exhibitors crammed into booths set up not only in seven exhibit halls and 52 meeting rooms, but along the walls of almost every corridor and hallway in the building.

"We can't really grow it much more," said Sutton of the exhibition, which CMP Asia produces annually, along with another jewelry show in Hong Kong and two in mainland China.

Sutton's remarks might appear to provide confirmation of the conventional wisdom that China and East Asia are the next frontiers, the next great opportunities for tradeshow growth. But as he and others familiar with Asia point out, it's not that simple.

"China's always been the next frontier," said Stephen Sind, president and CEO of Global Event Strategies, who has worked in the Asian trade fair world for decades. "The frontier opened up in 1980 and it's evolved since then."

It is certainly true that a handful of companies, like United Business Media subsidiary CMP Media, E.J. Krause and Reed Exhibitions, have been entrenched in Asia for at least 20 years. It is also true that there is an abundance of exhibition hall space available — and show managers, both domestic and foreign, willing to fill it with shows; and that China has become an economic powerhouse over the last decade.

However, there are great cultural differences to combat if you want to do business there; governmental restrictions that can be both exhausting and frustrating; and uneven development in a country that has coastal regions booming while much of the rest of the population lives just as it has for decades.

"You can fly over China on a clear day and see thousands of villages connected by one very small road," said Michael Duck, chairman of the Asian Pacific chapter of UFI — the Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry and also a senior vice president at CMP Asia, "but only in the next 10 or 15 years are they going to be linked up."

Meanwhile, on the first day of the Hong Kong jewelry show, long lines snaked through the crowded registration area, around the convention center lobby and outside into the street.

The horizontally structured show — featuring everything from the world's finest diamonds and pearls to raw stones, from jewelry display cases to tools and machinery — draws exhibitors from 47 countries. But more than half are from Hong Kong, the world's third-largest exporter of jewelry (a business worth $2.85 billion a year to the local economy, according to the Hong Kong Jewelry Manufacturers Assn.).

Attendees come from throughout Asia, and most certainly from mainland China — a phenomenon that has only accelerated since the handover of Hong Kong from the English to the Chinese in 1997.

"It's been written before that people used to have two colors of Mao suits," Duck said. "Now they want access to brands."

In fact, they want more than brands. Amish Aggarwai, a sales manager with Daniel K Jewelers in New York, was in Hong Kong to display his company's "very high-end" platinum gold and diamond jewelry. Daniel K has plenty of experience at The JCK Show — Las Vegas, Fashion Coterie and other shows in the United States.

"America will always be our core market," Aggarwai said.

He and his company went to the Hong Kong show for what he called "a pilot test for the Asian market."

"And it's going quite well," Aggarwai said on the third day of the show. "Asia is an emerging market."

The traffic was heavy and sales people in his booth were all busy, despite its location. Since the show was a last-minute decision for Aggarwai, he had to take the only booth available, near a line of raw gem exhibitors and across from a very busy food stand serving noodles and dumplings.

Aggarwai said that next year he hopes to be in the show's Fine Design Pavilion, a show-within-a-show for 72 high-end jewelers — all with identical booths — that had separate registration requirements for attendees.

"We want to make sure they can afford it," Law said.

Sutton believes there are, and will continue to be, plenty who can afford it in mainland China (with its population of 1.3 billion). While Americans often jump to the conclusion that the bulk of China's economic activity is represented by its vast exports and the infrastructure rapidly being developed to create even more, CMP — with 20 annual events in Hong Kong and 30 more elsewhere in China — understands it is also an import market, one that is already well-served by a robust tradeshow industry.

"What you get are a lot of copycat events. Our rivals are smaller, domestic, price-driven events," he said. "It's a very aggressive free market."

But is it one Americans can compete in?

"It's a reasonable aspiration," Sutton said, "but don't think for a minute that the Chinese exhibition industry isn't already humming."

There are certainly more governmental restrictions than many American show producers are used to. Shows do have to be licensed, which is one reason why many foreigners interested in the market will ultimately partner with somebody with experience in the region.

"You can find it very frustrating, exhausting and expensive to do business here," Sutton said. "You have to be very serious about it."

And, both Sutton and Sind agreed, finding the right partners to work with is important — whether the partnership takes the form of a licensing arrangement, a management contract or a joint venture.

It's a sophisticated market," Sind said. "It's very crowded, but it doesn't mean the opportunity isn't there."