TAIWAN - Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)'s Food Show in the southern city of Kaohsiung has won the Meet Taiwan 2010 Advancement Exhibition Award for best exhibition.
Against a backdrop of recession that has hit Taiwanese manufacturing hard, the show posted a 20 per cent increase in exhibitors (142). Executive director of the TAITRA Exhibition Department, Jeremy Horng, told EW that his company had organised 30 shows over the past year in an attempt to aid the national drive to explore new trade opportunities.
"TAITRA's top six shows are actually growing as Taiwan is able to provide a complete products supply chain. Our USP is 40 years' experience combined with being able to answer the big question from potential exhibitors looking for return on investment.
"We believe we were the first organiser in Asia to introduce one-on-one procurement meetings back in 2004 and now offer more than 3,000 such meetings for our exhibitors and visitors at Computex Taipei."
Horng said other parts of the TAITRA organiser development strategy include developing more shows in India and building more exhibition space in Taiwan. Currently TAITRA has 100,000m2 of space at its venues.
The 2010 MICE Awards are part of Taiwan's new MICE Advancement Program funded by the country's Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT).
Taiwan's 2010 Exhibition and Convention Industry Show opens today at the EXCO Taiwan expo centre, and the country is preparing to host the International Flora Expo in November 2010. The Flora Expo has cost the local government more than US$150m to stage and has been three years in preparation. The show will be spread over 91.8 hectares, 70 of which will be covered by floral landscapes.
