A global player
Impeded by political turmoil and a lack of high-quality venue
space, Egypt has historically struggled to establish itself as a
global exhibition destination. However, with the opening of a
new venue, this may all be set to change
“E
gypt has always been a big
market,” Matt Denton, president
of dmg::events, tells EN. “It’s
always been an entry point into North
Africa. With the Arab Spring there was a bit
of uncertainty but now, with the new venue
and a lot of shows going in there, everyone's
attention is turning to it.”
We’re discussing the news that dmg is
opening a new office in Cairo, in addition to
launching a new edition of its construction
trade series The Big 5 in the city. The
decision to open an office in Egypt appears
to speak volumes about dmg’s confidence
that the country can deliver growth and
success for its events.
“It looks to be an emerging and settling
regional hub,” agrees Denton. “Rather
than operate our shows remotely from our
offices in London or the UAE we thought
it was the right time to create a permanent
establishment there. The new venue – the
Egyptian International Exhibition Center
– is a fantastic new purpose-built facility
and as that was being finalised we had the
opportunity to push our flagship Big 5 show.
“The establishment of a new entity is quite
hard, but it's always beneficial. It's easy to be
an international organiser and send people
to fly in but a successful event, even if it’s an
international exhibition, needs to know quite
a large percentage of local exhibitors. They
generate a lot of the interest in the local
audience.”
Peter Hall, president – global exhibitions
EMEA at Informa, agrees.
“Egypt is typical of many markets in the
Middle East and Africa; they’re quite face-
to-face,” he tells EN. “Having people on the
ground is important. We fly out regularly
but having people on the ground to support
some of those international efforts is really
important.”
Informa has been operating in Egypt
for a number of years, and the organiser’s
investment in the region doesn’t just come in
the form of an office in the country, it is also
actively working with the EIEC to improve
overall standards.
“We're trying to play our role in
developing the exhibition industry in Egypt
and improving standards is a big part of
COVER FEATURE
where we can help,” explains Hall. “We ran
quite a large health and safety workshop
about a month ago which lots of the
operational staff from the venue attended.
“Egypt’s an attractive market for us
and we're quite heavily invested there. For
the last four years we’ve been working
hard with the venue to improve standards,
because the labour standards and the fire
and safety standards had been quite low.
They’re improving a lot, and we needed them
to improve in order to be compliant with
international standards that we have.”
One positive aspect of operating in Cairo,
which both Hall and Denton point out, is
the enthusiastic cooperation of the Egyptian
government.
“They're really trying to push Egypt as
a hub for Africa,” says Hall. “There are a
number of government-funded programmes
that help us on a practical level. They help
us bring in hosted buyers from across Africa.
They subsidise our events and our hosted
buyer programs. They genuinely are doing
something about it.”
Denton adds: “The government is quite
keen to support organisers. If you can target
real buyers in the surrounding countries they
will help you fly those in so you get the right
people in the room. They're keen to support
international events because they do see it as
broadening the appeal of the country.”
The combination of the newly opened
EIEC and politics largely settling in the
country has also prompted interest from
other international organisers, says Denton.
“A lot of the local organisers there
are selling or being bought up by the
big internationals,” he explains. “That's
happening all over the world but there's been
quite a lot of interest in Egypt recently.
“A lot of people have been looking over
the years. The Italians were looking four
or five years ago, the Germans are as well.
Between us and Informa we're making very
good headway and it’s an exciting part of the
world.”
Hall adds that, while there are still
security concerns over the country from
exhibitors, it’s more of a perception than a
reality, and more organisers will begin to
look closely at the region. I think there's
going to be more competition over there
in the near future and we'll see if that’s a
good thing or a bad thing,” he concludes.
“The more that Egypt has international
activity the more it almost protects Informa’s
interests.
“If you're the only show in town you
could end up becoming quite vulnerable if
someone comes to try and take you out and
steal the market. If you've got a bit more of
a fragmented market then you're probably
more secure.” EN
exhibitionnews.co.uk | January 2019
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