A panel on “Convergence & Collaboration—The Need To Create An Interdependent Ecosystem For The Meeting And Exhibition Industry” at the 10th ICPB Conventions India Conclave, saw KV Nagendra Prasad, President, Indian Exhibition Industry Association, Ravinder Sethi, MD, Rogers Worldwide, Yogesh Mudras, MD, UBM, Chander Mansharamani, Vice Chairman, ICPB and Arjun Narne, Director, KW Conferences discuss the importance of creating a robust ecosystem.

ONE-ON-ONE CONVERSATIONS are a must,” says Ravinder Sethi and that, “Face to face medium will never be out of fashion as people need to network and interact. MICE is people driven and product specific. It is up to us how we as an industry plan to take it forward. We need to improve the ecosystem that exists in India as we are still to get an industry status. This needs to be collectively compared with what is being done in the West and we need to formulate strategies.”

Despite technological advancements like meeting schedulers and supply finders that enhance meetings’ products, Yogesh Mudras of UBM feels that face to face connect will definitely grow. “In a meeting or an exhibition you meet face to face where hundreds of people participate and network. UBM’s exhibition business has grown 15-20 percent every year. From 8 exhibitions in 2010, now we organise 26 in 2017. The success of our meetings and exhibitions have given an idea on how humans need personal touch and it is only through meeting one gets an idea about any product or innovation.”

Chander Mansharamani believes that digitisation is good and important for the exhibitions industry but most exhibitions cannot be diversified in digital world. “Today, most of the associations’ revenues come from exhibitions. The business of exhibitions industry is revenue generation and it is an opportunity for India as our exhibition industry is based on knowledge economy, so what if we don’t have infrastructure. In addition to this, there is a need to train and skill the industry people to have better leaders of tomorrow.”

Arjun Narne highlighted the fact that virtual meetings are important as it helps people to connect virtually. “Meeting webinar is good but many people like to network. We understand that China and other countries have ten times better infrastructure than India but a gathering or an exhibition help generate revenues by providing exhibition space to sponsors. We as exhibition organisers always like to collaborate with sponsors to help them place their products in a better and organised manner at the same time as it makes them feel important.”