第十七届中国会展经济国际合作论坛在福州举行 专访上海新国际博览中心总经理迈克尔
本网讯 1月12日，由中国国际贸易促进委员会（CCPIT）、国际展览业协会（UFI）、国际展览与项目协会（IAEE）、独立组展商协会（SISO）、国际大会及会议协会（ICCA）共同主办的第十七届中国会展经济国际合作论坛（CEFCO2022）在福州市中庚喜来登酒店拉开帷幕。
中国会展经济国际合作论坛是全球范围内最具影响力的会展论坛之一，本届合作论坛以 “新格局、新使命、新发展”为主题，聚焦新形势下会展行业的发展与进化。
开幕式后，作为国内会展行业龙头企业之一，上海新国际博览中心有限公司总经理迈克尔作为论坛重要嘉宾，接受了本网专访，针对会展行业在近年来遇到的挑战和转型，阐述了自己的观点。
上海新国际博览中心总经理迈克尔
提问：这两年，会展行业跨界经营的案例明显增多，头部企业的差异化竞争也在加剧，未来会展行业是否会更强调上下游的资源整合能力？
迈克尔：我们所处的行业，如今正在不断寻找、拓展新的主题和业务领域，以寻求新的项目和展会的落地。就个人而言，我相信一定会看到越来越多的新项目新玩家试图进入会展行业领域。
此外，随着连通性的增强，世界正变得越来越小，各方力量不仅跨活动、跨境合作，而且还在跨行业融合。这意味着我们不仅会看到不同行业之间的展会产生交集，还会看到不同行业之间的会议、活动、重要节点的交叉连通。随着业务种类的增加，这对行业来说是个好消息。
提问：全球疫情下，上海、成都等地，会展行业的数字化趋势正在加速，展务、会务、商务的整体融合数字化已成趋势，这会对行业形成一轮新的洗牌吗？
迈克尔：我不这么认为。目前对这类技术的投资显得过于昂贵了。也许等到疫情大流行结束后，企业整体上更能负担得起。请记住，我们仍然生活在21世纪，人们需要并热爱人性化的服务，这意味着会展行业更需要面对面的交流。
也许100年后，当机器人或人工智能将接管多数场景服务时，整个局面将改变，不过还是让我们希望这永远不会发生吧。因此，我预测各种活动中的数字元素都会增加，但对于大型博览会和B2B类型展会，数字化展会的戏份最多会增加10-20%。
提问：会展产业链从2020年至今受到的冲击非常大，不少地区也推出了线上展会等行业新形式新工具，您认为近年来有哪些行业创新值得肯定？
MK：作为会展企业，我一直关注着这类变化的进展。但到目前为止，我还没有看到任何能让我信服的新形式。当然了，也有一些不错的在线展会，你可以在那里聊天、和网友交流，和专业合作伙伴沟通。
但正如我刚才所说，第一，这种网上博览会的盈利模式并不明确。到目前为止，我相信大多数参与者都在赔钱。其次，目前能称得上“在线展览”的不多，大多数都是“在线平台”，和传统展会开放3-4天也不同，有些线上运营商甚至可能需要在开放平台上驻守1年。如果有越来越多的在线展会开放那么长时间，那么它将导致潜在参展商和与会者之间的一场混乱。
附：英文采访回答原文
Q:In the past two years, the number ofcases of cross-border operation in the exhibition industry has increasedsignificantly, and the differentiated competition of leading enterprises isalso intensifying. Will the exhibition industry in the future place moreemphasis on the ability to integrate upstream and downstream resources?
MK: Our industry is continuously lookingfor new topics and business fields to launch new event and expos. Thus Ibelieve we will definitely see an increasing number of activities and playerstrying to enter this.
Also the world is getting smaller in termsof connectivity and not only cross-border but also cross-industry and last butno least cross-events. This means that we will not only see exibitons but alsoconferences, events, concert and festivals between different industrieshappening. SO the variety of events will increase and that is definitely a goodsign.
Q:Under the global epidemic situation, inShanghai, Chengdu and other places, the digitalization trend of the exhibitionindustry is accelerating, and the overall integration of exhibition, conferenceand business digitalization has become a trend. Will this form a new round ofreshuffle for the industry?
MK: I don’t think so. The mainreason is that any investment in such technology is too expensive at the momentand by the time it may be more affordable the pandemic will hopefully be over.
Keep in mind that we are till living in the21st century and people need and love the human touch, that means face to face.
Maybe 100 years from now when roboter or AIwill take over then the whole picture will change but of course lets hope thatthis will never happen.
So I predict an increase in digitalelements in all kind of events but for large expos and b2b exhibitions thispart will be max 10-20pct
Q:The exhibition industry chain has beengreatly impacted since 2020. Many regions have also launched new forms and newtools for the industry such as online exhibitions. What industry innovations doyou think are worthy of recognition in recent years?
MK: being a venue I of course have watchedthe development very closely and so far I have not seen any format which wouldconvince me. Surely there are some nice online expos where you can chat andmeet and greet people and professional partners. But as I said before, the keyproblems are a) the profit model for such online expo which does not exist. SOfar I believe most of the players lose money and b) there are no online exposbut rather online platforms which not necessarily have to be open just for 3-4days. So in this case the operator of such platform may even have to open theplatform for 1 year. If there will be more and more online expos which are openthat long, then it will lead to a big chaos amongst the potential exhibitors,and attendees.
