Frankfurt, Germany – September 16, 2015: People visiting the Audi Hall during IAA 2015 motor show.
There are multiple components which contribute to the success of any business trade mission or in market visit, regardless of sector and destination. Significant milestones around preparation are a given in terms of filling a schedule with genuine, worthwhile company meetings, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Company A can meet with company B at X location, at Y time, which is great,but that sounds more like an algebra test question or the start of a bad joke. From a logistics perspective with a trade mission in mind, the realistic question often becomes something more along the lines of- can they get to the meeting without having to leave at 4am and get back in time for an afternoon reception event?
This type of activity often centres on the “how” rather than the “who”. A thorough and well thought out plan will ensure that given enough preparation time you can identify potential meeting targets and a long list for outreach in advance. The recent Farnborough Airshow in July 2016 for example had 1500+ exhibitors from over 52 countries, which meant in many cases the work starts anything up to 3 months in advance to build out a successful programme.
The difficult element here is weaving the potential beneficial meetings into a fully functional and feasible schedule across the duration of a given visit/mission.
In the past few months we’ve covered Events in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Asia across industry sectors such as medical, aerospace and advanced manufacturing. The recurring theme arising on each occasion is time utilisation. It’s an endeavour of cost, effort and resources for a company to attend a trade show or partake in a delegation visi,t so there has to be a return in some way shape or form because ultimately it’s time spent which could be utilised somewhere else.
It’s this reality that forms the perception of success following an activity. The real test when you get back to your office is more – “Has the time away resulted in a realistic pipeline of business opportunity?”
OCO Global is well versed in terms of this type of activity and are available to discuss your upcoming planned activities whether that be a delegation visit or an individual company partaking in an overseas event for the first time. We can assist with the facilitation of meetings, schedules, logistic planning and ultimately ensure you get the most return from your time in market.
From an Economic Development Organisation (EDO) perspective the recruitment of companies can be a time consuming task in itself and ultimately a successful show for a participating company will always make future recruitment that much easier.
Have a look at your calendar for the year ahead – which Industry Events will you plan to attend? How will you approach these? What’s your expectations surrounding these? What do you want to achieve through your participation either from an EDO or private company perspective?
OCO Global’s trade team is here to help you answer these questions and support the organisation of a successful in market activity.
Contact us today.
