Regional overview
SE Asia: Mack Brooks insight
ith a sharp focus on South East Asia in this issue,
EW asked Stephen Brooks, Chairman of global
organiser Mack Brooks Exhibitions Group – a
man very much in the news following the confirmed sale
of the company to Reed Exhibitions (RELX) in January – to
share some insights into what the region can offer.
Above:
South East Asia continues to provide a
great base for trade shows especially
because of the growing number of
Chinese companies looking to access
these markets.
Thailand is a particularly good
regional hub, with easy, low cost
access for event participants.
Bangkok is easy to fly to from pretty
much everywhere and the range
of destination highlights and hotel
facilities is as good as anywhere in the
world.
The Thai events market is also well
supported by an active convention
bureau. The only possible down-side
in Thailand is that the main venue
BITEC is not as flexible in welcoming
launch events as it might be and
the other Bangkok venues, such as
IMPACT, are not ideally located for
visitors.
Malaysia offers a smaller home
market than Thailand but is similarly
well-placed to host pan-regional
South East Asian events, with
excellent destination opportunities
and well-developed infrastructure for
business travellers.
32
Issue 1 2019
Both locations compete well on
price with the longer established
event and meetings location of
Singapore. But, compared to
Singapore, both Bangkok and
Malaysia present the potential for
political and currency instability.
From time to time these things can
take you by surprise, although, by and
large, both Thailand and Malaysia
seem to manage to remain open for
business throughout, even in the face
of startling newspaper headlines.
Mack Brooks organised its first
trade show in Kuala Lumpur in 1997.
It was during this event that fate
smiled upon me when I was invited
to meet the owner of a new venue
development in KL, namely ‘Mines’.
It provided me the opportunity to
invite Tan Shri Lee of the Malaysian
property development company
‘Country Heights’ to London to meet
the ExCeL development team. As a
direct result ExCeL got built, with
Country Heights funding the building
of the new exhibition centre in
London’s Docklands. It brought about
a much-needed improvement to
London’s event space.
Today Mack Brooks operates
throughout South East Asia from an
office location in Bangkok,
from where it is set-up to organise
events throughout Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and
Indonesia. Visitor attendance at the
company’s Bangkok events has been
particularly strong.
Solar panels
overlooking
the cityscape of
Singapore
Above:
Aerial view of
Bangkok’s modern
office buildings
Above:
Swimming pool
with a view of
Kuala Lumpur
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk