Nebeyu Lemma is an event person engaged in the transformation of sectors through organizing valuable trade and knowledge platforms. He is a founder and managing director of Prana Events. And he is a cofounder of Nitad Trading & Service PLC and Lunar International College. Excerpts: Herald: How to measure your success and your accomplishment in the exhibition industry?
Nebeyu: In my thirteen years’ experience in the exhibition industry, my company has managed to organize more than forty international trade fairs in agriculture, aquaculture, healthcare, medical and pharma, plastic, printing and packaging, poultry and livestock, and the latest addition furniture, interior and finishing materials sectors.
We had also organized a single session on chemical and petrochemical, education, as well as fashion and cosmetic sectors.
Apart from the specialized trade-fairs, we have also hosted the China Trade Week – Ethiopia for three years in collaboration with the Chinese MIE events DMCC. This makes us to be the leading trade fair organizers in Ethiopia as we succedded in organizing many shows in many sectors. Currently, we have proved to be the sole organizers in Ethiopia that manages four trade fairs annually. We are also supporting the industry by providing an international standard exhibition stand construction service to increase the quality of the shows.
We have also introduced a smart visitor registration system in our market, where visitors can pre-register online for a fast entry as well as tablet-based registration for onsite registration visitors.
Herald: Is there any improvement in the exhibition industry? If yes, could you brief us about that?
Nebeyu: Yes, there are many improvements. The main one is the increasing number of specialized trade-fairs in the country. When we enter the business, there were only three specialized shows- Construction, Automotive, and Flower. Now, there are around 25 annually organized specialized trade-fairs in the city.
The other one is the increasing interest of foreign organizers in our market; they host some of the annual shows. There is an increase in the number of international participants in many of the shows. Local business community engagement in these shows is also improving. The number of trade visitors is also displaying improvement every year in most of the shows, which was a challenge in earlier days. The volume of business after the trade-fairs is also growing.
Herald: Would you say something on worldwide exhibition practice?
Nebeyu: According to UFI 2018 report, approximately 32,000 exhibitions have directly involved 303 million visitors, and nearly five million exhibitors across more than 180 countries. After accounting for indirect and induced impacts, exhibitions supported a total global economic impact of 325 billion USD of output of business sales, 3.2 million jobs, and 197.5 USD billion of GDP that representing a contribution to global gross domestic product in 2018. Germany is the world’s number one location for international trade fairs. Every year, they organize 160-180 international trade-fairs. The 2018 data from AUMA shows Germany host 194 exhibitions. Sixty percent of world leading trade-fairs are held in Germany. In this exhibition, 194,000 exhibitors in 2018, 60 percent over 108,000, come from other countries. In the same year 10 million visitors, 30 percent of which or over 3 million, come from other countries. They have 25 exhibition venues with a combined hall space of 2.8 million square meters.
These facilities outlay 300 million Euros annually to optimize their facilities. Germany has four of the eight largest exhibition venues in the world. Ten of them are with a capacity of more than 100,000 sqm. In 2018, exhibitors and visitors spending has surpassed EUR 14.5 billion, and the overall effect on the Economy was EUR 28 Billion. From 58,000 companies currently active in the B2B segment at trade-fairs, 231,000 job opportunities are created.
There are 100 Exhibition organizers, around 40 of which handle international fairs, and they also organize 300 trade-fairs annually in other countries. Dubai is the number one location for international trade-fairs in the Middle East and Africa. 97 large scale exhibitions, conferences, and trade events were organized in DWTC during 2018. Combined space of 300,000 square meters were sold, and 3 million people, over 1 million from abroad have visited the show, which creates an overall Effect–AED 23 billion on the economy, which is 3.3 percent of Emirates GDP. Dubai World Trade Center alone records AED 13.1 billion direct economic impact. About 500,000 jobs are expected from the MICE sector over the next eight years. We can see where we are in light of this estimation.
Herald: How the exhibition organization scales up its service at a global level?
Nebeyu: The most important factor to scale up the service to a global level is following the standards set by the Global Association of Exhibition Industry (UFI). Working on the international standard venue, creating a relationship with global leading organizers, partnerships with export councils, and agencies in different countries, providing real-time market information, building a team of experts, developing proper exhibition floor management system, having world-class event services, deployment of a transparent visitors registration system are among the essential activities one should consider on scaling up its service at a global level.
Herald: What contributions does your organization have in promoting local products to local consumers and foreign investors?
Nebeyu: We have been in this business for more than a decade in a challenging environment. It is due to the value we create in the sectors we operate. I can mention the success story of Electrometer Engineering. One of the most critical challenges we have in the livestock and poultry sector is fodder. This company has been providing technical and maintenance service, but they had the professional capacity to manufacture feed processing machinery locally that substitute the imported one. We have invited them to join our exhibition 2011 for free and, they managed to get a deal from ACDI-VOCA Feed Project I to provide their 1st Feed Processing plant. Now they have manufactured and distributed more than 500 agricultural processing machinery all over the country, including agricultural colleges and also for the training center at the Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute.
Our poultry expo contributed a lot for the increase of parent stock farms in tenfold due to the business linkages created in the poultry expo. We also enable the country to export meat to Kuwait due to the B2B platform we organize in our 2014 livestock exhibitions. There are many success stories we have in market linkage, trade facilitation, technology and knowledge transfer, and investment promotion.
Herald: Does your organization giving concern on the interest of the society? If yes, brief to us? Nebeyu: If you see the list of the exhibition we are organizing, you will note that it addresses the main interest of the society. These sectors need massive promotional activities. We usually do a feasibility study before we launch a new show. From our surveys, we have found that the most crucial issue for our society is food security and healthcare.
That is why we organize different shows in agriculture, livestock, poultry, food, healthcare, medical, and pharma sectors. This shows, we are promoting the latest technology and solutions to improve productivity and encourage investment to increase output besides facilitating trade in the value chain. Herald: With which governmental organizations and private institutions is your organization working with?
Nebeyu: We are mainly working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Trade and Industry and their subordinate organization as many of the sectors we operate fall under their mandate. From the private sector, we work with local producers, importers, agents, and service providers engaged in our operational areas. We also collaborate with the sectorial association and provde them support to strengthen their capacity. Herald: Tell us about the untapped need of the consumers in the country? There is a growing consumer demand for various products due to economic growth and lifestyle change besides population demography.
However, lack of supply and the small number of competing products in the market are affecting consumer demand. Even though we have a 109+ million population, where 70 percent is the young population under 30 years, the small number of local manufacturers and lack of availability for international brands in various product lines have also affected the quality and consumer product preference. A lot has to be done to satisfy the needs, which will have a huge impact on the economy.
Herald: What kind of needed equipment and materials does your organization exhibited so far? Nebeyu: In our agriculture exhibition, the main exhibits are agricultural machineries, farming tractors, harvesting equipment, and irrigation systems. In the food and beverage, tech exhibition, process technology, refrigeration, and air conditioning, packaging technology, ingredients, and storage installation makes the larger segment of the exhibits.
Whereas in our livestock and poultry expo animal housing, animal health products, technologies in breeding and reproduction, milking and cooling, slaughtering and processing, veterinary equipment’s, feed processing machineries, silos, feed additives, farm inputs, feeding technology, as well as equipment and accessories for farming, processing, and storage, cover the bigger slice of the space. When it comes to the healthcare event, it mainly focuses on medical technology, disposable and consumables, hospital furniture and supplies, imaging and diagnostic products, medical devices, equipment and instruments, pharmaceuticals and supplements, and surgical products. In the furniture and interior expo, the exhibits are furniture machinery and accessories, home textiles, wood products, finished furniture products, paints, finishing materials, gardening, etc.
The Ethiopian Herald April 12/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
