New AI tools and changes in global trade flows are creating new excitement for exhibition organisers, says Mark Cochrane, the new owner of Business Strategies Group
Congratulations on your acquisition of Business Strategies Group (BSG). Do you see this as a new chapter for the firm, or a continuation of what it has always done?
It’s really a continuation. BSG has an incredibly stable team. There are seven of us, including Paul Woodward who founded the company in 2000. Now that he has decided to ease into retirement, I will buy out his shares over the next two years. The good thing is, he doesn’t want to totally retire, so if we needed his expertise for a big project, he would come back and help us.
So, we’ve got Paul in London, Evan Li in Shanghai, and five of us in Hong Kong.
We’ve always been focused on B2B events in Asia, so our client groups are exhibition organisers primarily and more generally, B2B event organisers, venues, and government bodies.
We do a lot of M&As, commercial due diligence, identification of targets or gaps in the market for either a launch of a new show or an acquisition of an existing show, as well as competitive analyses.
We operate in a good niche because there are not a lot of people specialising in such things (for the business events industry) here in Asia.
Indeed, BSG offers a very comprehensive range of intelligence-focused services. Do you think you have a good mix right now?
Yeah, I would say so. The core of our business is focused on business intelligence, strategy, advisory, and market research.
However, we are also in the representation business, with UFI being the longest one we have. Paul opened the UFI Asia Pacific office in 2004, and it has seen amazing growth since. It started with 45 members in this region then, and now it has 447.
The other representation business we have is with the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau for Greater China since 2006.
We occasionally pick up short-term representation contracts and remain open to these. We are now talking to CVBs in Europe to see if they would like to try and attract Asian organisers of exhibitions or conferences. I have good contacts in Europe through my role at UFI Asia Pacific, so it’s a good fit.
From your observations, what would you say are the most interesting trends and concerns for business events industry stakeholders now and in the immediate future?
Well, one is AI. Within the exhibitions and conference industry, AI is positively impacting sales and marketing, customer care, and on-site registration. AI is really exciting in terms of improving the customer journey at exhibitions. AI tools are helping with analysis to facilitate matchmaking between visitors and exhibitors.
Covid has proven that face-to-face events are so resilient, and technology is always going to be a boost for such events – to make events more efficient and to make the experience better.
The other is the ongoing trade and political tensions between China and the US, and between the US and everybody else. The uncertainty being created by the Trump administration’s tariff approach is really creating uncertainty around business events. In China, business events are seeing different international visitors and exhibitors in attendance, and there is a drop in US participation.
However, I will put in a caveat: the US and China are each other’s biggest trading partners, so no matter how tense it gets, they have to trade with each other and will continue to participate in each other’s tradeshows. But in the short term, there will be some negative disruption.
One interesting outcome is the opportunity this disruption creates for tradeshows and tradeshow organisers. If the US and China are trading less, trade flows will increase elsewhere. This creates opportunities to launch new tradeshows.
Some of our clients are already asking us where the opportunities are outside of China, and where they could launch shows that would take advantage of new trade flows. It is an exciting time.
We have seen the decentralisation of the supply chain for years now, with factories and operations being set up outside of China, in South-east Asia. Are opportunities here in South-east Asia then?
I think China’s strict shutdown during the pandemic as well as political tensions going back to 2019, and up to the present have made major corporations realise that they cannot have their entire supply chain in China. While they cannot move operations entirely out of China because it is the world’s manufacturer, they can hedge their bets by moving part of the supply chain elsewhere.
This is why Vietnam is so hot, to be honest. It is a low-cost manufacturing base where major manufacturers can put some of their supply chain. I think it’s an exciting opportunity for South-east Asian economies and for the exhibition industry in South-east Asia.
Which country in South-east Asia do you think will rise as a strong contender for exhibitions as a result?
I’m not being diplomatic, but they all have different strengths.
Singapore, for a long time, has been moving towards more knowledge-based confex (a blend of conference and exhibition formats) shows. It is such a strong destination, with all the infrastructure and trained labour force. It is an attractive place for fintech, security, and knowledge-based business events. One issue that worries me is the cost of doing business in Singapore – it has gone up and up. At some point, this will impact the destination attractiveness of Singapore, and organisers will have to look elsewhere.
Thailand is also a developed exhibitions market that’s strong and will continue to be so.
I think the hottest, most interesting destinations for exhibitions will have to be Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines once they get more venue capacity built.
The biggest venue in the Philippines offers 10,000m2. The destination needs a venue that is five times bigger (to serve exhibition organisers), and the good news is that it is moving towards additional new venue capacity.
Vietnam is also building a new venue that is very significant in size, which will open up a world of possibilities for the country’s exhibitions industry. At present, Vietnam is underdeveloped in terms of the exhibition industry, yet the economy is growing really strongly. This makes Vietnam an exciting one to watch.
India is not in South-east Asia, but it is a hot contender because of its huge domestic economy. There are new venues in both Delhi and Mumbai, which will spur growth for the exhibitions industry.
