NEW DELHI: There is a general feeling among manufacturers that there is an array of tradeshows being organised in one calendar year than it was five years back. Last week, Delhi witnessed seven niche tradeshows at Pragati Maidan from August 7-10. The shows - India Packaging show, India Corrugated Show, India Converting Show, India Flex Show, Food Techonolgy show and Pharma technology show and India AIDC Show 2008 turned out to be well attended despite heavy rains during the first two days.
 
"We clubbed these shows together because they belong to niche segments and are inter-related. Any buyer who comes to the show can get a complete solution at one place and at the same time," said Garima Arora of Print-Packaging.com (P) Ltd, the organiser of the show. She added, "From the next year, two more shows namely India Logistics Show and India Retail Show will also be organised."
 
The five shows, which were organised over about 14,000 sq m gross area was participated by over 351 exhibitors including 35 overseas with over 450 represented companies. "The show is one of its largest kinds, with so many running machines put on display at one venue. In terms of visitors, it was again a big show as we received a cumulative response of about 12,000 visitors during the first three days," reiterated Garima.
 
The exhibitors who came to participate in the show were not left unimpressed either. Sunil Daniel of Uflex Limited said although the show was not big enough, it generated a fairly good number of responses for him. "We received about 400 enquiries during the first three days. The visitors' profile was diverse as they came from various segments from different parts of the country. Some of them were top level management people," said Daniel.
 
A similar experience was echoed by Rishi Saxena of ABB Limited whose company launched its new product called AC500 PLC. Rishis said, "The show had a high penetration because people are now looking for complete solution. Apart from this, the show also provided a right platform to interact with customers from diverse background." Saxena who received more than 40 genuine enquiries in total by the end of the third day said the response was on the expected line.
 
For Ankit Kashyap of Rexroth Gosch Group, it was a different experience. A first time participant in the show, he said the response was mix but not very encouraging. A component and parts supplier, Ankit felt that the organiser should have taken into account the timing of the show. "The interest of show is sure to suffer if people find it hard to reach the venue. Such shows should not be organised in rainy seasons," said Ankit.
 
Narendra Patel of Bhavmark System, a Mumbai-based company, received more than 30 genuine enquiries during the last two days. He felt that in India there are too many shows being organised. "One should be discrete while participating in the show and should take into account the organiser's credibility, the advertising he does and the database of customer he has," Patel said. Patel however, observed that for big companies and those who have just made foray into the market, a presence at the show is required to create awareness about the Company and its products.
 
There were others like Vikram Vashishta of Packraft Container, a first-timer, who was there to promote his eco-friendly honeycomb packaging products, which were introduced in India early this year. He said his products are economical and offer complete solution to packaging. "The response we received at the show was good and we got some very good leads from yarn manufacturers.
 
Mazhar Aziz of Packomark Technology said that the show gave him a good opportunity to showcase his products which otherwise would have been difficult. "In my opinion, tradeshows are a good place for knowledge building and to know about the latest technology. It does help one to take an informed-decision when it comes to buying machines, equipments and other related industry products," Aziz said.