Iraq Reconstruction Show Postponed Again
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/21/2005
Even though a contingent of 500 Iraqi police officers was planned to ensure safety, Destination Baghdad Expo (DBX), originally scheduled for Dec. 15–18, has been postponed for the second time due to security concerns.
The second annual show, already rescheduled from March 1–3 to October, would be the first reconstruction show to take place inside the postwar Iraq — assuming it eventually opens at all.
DBX will be held inside a hangar at the Baghdad Intl. Airport, "the safest place there," said Nadia Ommar, U.S. office manager for show organizer the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce & Industry. According to the show's Web site, DBX will be "safe and incident-free."
Ommar said the postponement also allows the Baghdad-based IACCI, which represents 4,500 Iraqi businesses, additional time to finish converting a six-story building next to the hangar into a hotel by the show's new dates, which may coincide with the Baghdad Intl. Fair. "That way people don't have to go any further than the airport if they want to," Ommar added.
The show originally was projected to include more than 500 exhibiting companies. The first DBX was scheduled for last April in Baghdad and was eventually held in May in Diyarbakir, Turkey.
Another show, Rebuild Iraq 2005, is scheduled for April 4–7 at the Amman (Jordan) Intl. Fair. That show, held in Kuwait in 2004, is supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce trade fair certification program.
