Second-year Rebuild Iraq Show Scheduled

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 1/24/2005

Rebuild Iraq 2005 participants are gearing up for its second annual installment, designed to offer Iraqis access to international companies with material and equipment for the 2,500 ongoing rehabilitation projects around the country. While show managers certainly considered last year's show a success, more than 1,100 exhibiting companies from 40 countries are expected this year, thanks in part to the show's first U.S. Department of Commerce trade fair certification and a new Middle East location.

The April 4–7 show at the Amman Intl. Fair in Amman, Jordan, should take up 20,000 net square meters (215,278 net square feet), both inside and outside, and attract nearly 16,000 attendees. A two-day conference will also be held April 5–6.

"It will be a great opportunity for companies, especially American companies, to be there and to appeal to this market," said Bechara Nacouzi, North America representative for the Intl. Fairs & Promotions Group, the Beirut, Lebanon-based co-organizer. The show is also being organized by Saudi Arabia-based Riyadh Exhibitions and Amman-based Expo Jordan.

Held last year in Kuwait, the show was moved to Jordan because there are more hotel rooms available there, Nacouzi said. Although the Jordanian venue is smaller, allowing for about 1,100 exhibitors (300 less than last year), Nacouzi said Amman is "a safe, neutral place."

Exhibitor Ed Kostenski, president of Nationwide Equipment, said that he's skeptical that Amman is secure enough, especially since Nationwide's booth may be situated close to an entranceway and terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi hails from nearby Az Zarqa.

"We're a little concerned about security," Kostenski said. "I'm still hesitant to go myself. But maybe I'll be brave and bold."

Visa issues also played a role in the show's move, Nacouzi said. Because Iraqis are able to obtain visas to enter Jordan at the countries' shared border, he anticipates a larger show attendance than last year's 14,300 visitors. Some 2004 show visitors were not able to obtain visas in time for the Kuwait show.

Jordanian officials appear eager to make the show a success. According to the show's Web site, Jordan's King Abdullah ordered a series of measures to help Iraqis travel into and out of Jordan.

Jorge Arce, director of the Jacksonville, Fla., office of the U.S. Commercial Service (the international marketing arm of the DOC), said he believes the show will lead to thousands of jobs for unemployed Iraqis.

"A lot of these folks are in despair because they don't have a job," Arce said. "The show will lead to public works projects, which will help Iraqis provide for the basic necessities of life."

The DOC certification brings "the objectivity and the neutrality of the U.S. government" to the show, Arce said, opening doors to the $150-billion market for show exhibitors. "The DOC can provide an introduction that provides a U.S. company with credibility in the eyes of Iraqi people," he added. Show organizers did not apply for DOC certification for Rebuild Iraq 2004.

The certification, which is stamped on nearly 80 other 2005 international shows, also assures show attendees "that the show organizer is legitimate and a reliable organizer," said Joe English, a DOC senior international trade specialist.

Outreach 2004 Exhibition & Conference, another DOC-certified Iraq reconstruction show launched last year, will not take place in 2005.

Gerald G. "Jerry" Kallman, managing director of Kallman Global Consulting, said his group decided to forego any repeat engagement "upon consideration of the situation in Iraq, the phase-out of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, and the surfeit of events claiming to meet the same objectives as our show."

Kallman, who served on a consultative committee that helped formulate the DOC certification program over 20 years ago, said, "No question, without this support, we would have been less successful."

Another show, Destination Baghdad Expo, (which is not certified by the DOC) is scheduled to take place March 1–3 at the Baghdad Intl. Airport in Iraq. The show, organized by the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce & Industry, was originally scheduled for Dec. 15–18, 2004.

The first Destination Baghdad Expo was scheduled for last April in Baghdad. It was eventually held in May in Diyarbakir, Turkey. If the show remains on track, it will be the first of its kind to take place inside postwar Iraq.

"The airport is the most secure place in Baghdad," said Nadia Ommar, U.S. office manager for the IACCI, who estimates that the show will present more than 500 exhibiting companies.