Many organisers could think that Paris exhibition’s market might appear saturated and difficult to enter with over 300 exhibitions organised every year.
However, Paris is surely the exhibition capital for liberalism and there are still opportunities to seize for international organisers. An open and very active market with around 100 operating organisers and an average of 30 new show launches every year.
Relocating, creating or duplicating a show abroad is not an easy task, especially when organisers don’t know about the local way of doing things. There are always slight differences between countries such as legislation, suppliers’ network, venues, etc.
One example of those differences that might exist with other European countries remains in the amount of freedom provided to organisers when they hire an exhibition hall from us.
Organisers can choose any suppliers they wish for their show set up, cleaning, security, etc, and what might appear as being an advantage to put down overall operational costs might be seen as a difficulty for some organisers who are used to work with integrated venues who don’t allow any external outsourced suppliers.
Also, once we hand over the keys for the spaces and the organiser enters the exhibitions halls, he becomes the tenant and he is then fully responsible for the entire organisation of his show. We realised throughout an international show we held recently that this might also be disturbing for some organisers who prefer to rely on a venue that will take care of the operational organisation. Even if we think this is part of the core business of the organiser and we try not to interfere too much in our clients’ organisation, we are providing closer support more and more to our international organisers.
This can be throughout advice about the destination selling points, assisting in setting up a social programme, introducing the local network of contractors or other suppliers such as communication / promotion agencies when needed, liaising with the main hospitality operators and assisting in getting deals with hotels, transport companies, etc. and even helping in sorting out international visas for visitors.
We realise that organisers are becoming more conscious of security issues as they are often audited and this can be a headache for organisers as legislation changes from one country to another. Because of this we are now working on giving more guidance on the French legislation with regards to health and security issues and explain organisers what they have to think and not to forget about.
Many International organisers benefit from Paris’s attractiveness and already operate here, including Reed UK, UBM Live, Informa and Mess Frankfurt.
Organising a show in Paris and in one of Viparis venues is really easy and straightforward once you know the little success tips that we will be happy to give you. There are great opportunities in Paris for new exhibitions, especially for niche or high value added shows in the sectors of transport, biotechnology or ICT.
- Florent Joncquiert, Deputy Director of ViParis
See February’s issue of Exhibition World for a deeper look at launching in new territory.
