You see the little picture above - it's an address card holder. That's something the Chinese do well whoever they are - Taiwanese, in China, Hong Kong, or Singapore. Everything is beautiful. And I love the curved rooftops. Anything oriental attracts me. Ever since I was a little girl collecting stamps. I have visited Hong Kong and Shanghai and Beijing and other members of my family have been to China on business but it is something I have yet to do. So I was delighted to find I had been given an address card holder.
Speaking of cards, I also picked up a pack of playing cards. I collect cards from around the world, with pictures of the destination or fancy fronts. I will show you more of these in another post.
Breakfast Choices - Why Taiwan Stand?
I went to a breakfast at the World Travel Market in London, hosted by Taiwan. Why did I go? Because at the start of the day after an hour or longer travelling into London (despite having had breakfast at home about 90 minutes earlier) I wanted to attend one of three breakfasts offered. I looked at Greece,a country I like (as a journalist I am interested in historic Olympia and ruins and I love baklava - especially new historical sites, I have visited more than once, also offering lunch and evening cocktails - I could do them later. I saw Malta, which I like and have visited, (historic walls, stunning sea views, olive trees - I have visited), on the stand conveniently next to Greece also with more flexible hours. Taiwan I don't know, but I have heard of the gold treasures, I am a Singapore resident, love Shanghai, have been to Beijing, also several times to Hong Kong, I love Chinese food such as Peking Duck, but not yet visited Taiwan. So I opted to see Taiwan. What did they do right?
How to Find The Stand
The first thing a stand in a huge exhibition centre must do is to have a big banner and sign seen from a distance with your stand's name. I think Excel should have arrows at the end of each aisle pointing to all the stands along that aisle. You can waste time running up and down, as I did. I had got up early, arrived in time at the hall. Did not know which station to choose, and looked at the map at the end of each aisle in the central hallway - no big sign on map saying you are here. It takes five minutes to read the map and find your stand. Then race along - have to go out to check which number aisle. At last I find them - mainly because I can see a group of people on a stand so I guess there's a breakfast and/or presentation.
Organiser And Presentation
When I arrive they are grouped around a screen and have a compere. That's good. One person to move everybody along. A message about the country.
Yes, many stands do this. The food is covered. You have to watch the presentation to reach the food. But often the minister drones on and on with generalisations you could make about any country, about how they people are so welcoming, stuff only for the trade publications and not for the package tourist looking for something to buy or sell, yes tourism has doubled,but what does that mean, more flights, sounds great, but why would anybody want to go there? Or too much impersonal detail, charts of statistics - not memorable, no interesting, no story. Can't name a single theme park, temple or hotel, just says, visit our stand or read our brochure - I could stay at home and read on line. I've come to the show to meet somebody who has been to the country and give me a quick guide to what to see and do and what's news. A good compere must hurry along the minister - difficult to do.
(A lot of people, such as the Maltese stand, serve food, you eat and drink, and really struggle to find anybody to speak to you to tell you the latest story, not even one big picture and message.
(For example, the Israel stand served lovely food but nobody came to talk to me. I watched a film. Tel Aviv - beaches. Art deco? Scenes kept flashing up on screen. Jerusalem - the wall - if you already know it. The third time I watched it I managed to work out which place was where, for example Nazareth ? - Jesus - birth of - lovely churches and crypts.)
Taiwan
Back to Taiwan. I could see the glasses of drink and food on the table but no welcome drink. How long will I have to wait until the end of the presentation - how long - ten minutes, half an hour? Should I dash off the Greek stand for food and run back here to see more of the presentation? I decide I am already too tired and wait. I reckon we should at least have had a glass of water on arrival.
So watching a presentation was good. Also good was the fact that each presentation was three minutes by a different destination, hotel, hotel group, attraction. I only knew three things about Taiwan, and missed out on how to get there, except by Eva Air. I thought that Taiwan had wonderful gold treasures in a museum, lots of poor rural areas (I saw a film on TV in Hong Kong with a hong Kong-Singaporean friend). And I have seen pictures of a city crowded like Hong Kong. So it was news to me that I got to see that Taiwan has glamorous five star hotels. I also saw a scenic area which I think was called Nantou.
The sound system was very quiet. The compere then brought me a hearing device. I put it on over my head like the ones you used to get on airlines. The compere rushed over to show me you wore it the other way up.
Soon even the speakers were starting to say, 'we are all hungry so I won't keep you long'. One after another. Finally we got to the food.
Alas, I had gone to speak to somebody. A crowd formed around the food. The front plate was chicken, already empty in the first minute from the first 20 people to crowd around and grab the bap. (I later saw what looked like the same sold at the nearby central hall food kiosk - which always had queues. So I got a bun with sausages - against my diet, cancer societies tell you not to eat processed food.You could argue that separate types of food on each plate is better, so that you don't pick something you are not expecting, wasting your time on vegetarian when you want meat, or discarding meat if you are vegetarian. But in this instance, having missed out on chicken, I wished they had mixed the plates of food or kept one plate back.
Speed-selling - great
Then the compere - who was very good, sent us to sit at booths. The system was American style, like speed-dating. The opposite of the first presentation where we were stuck for over half an hour, it seemed like two hours. You sit at a booth for about 3-4 minutes. Then a bell sounds and you move onto the next cubicle. That way nobody else can block you from seeing a person you want to meet. You have a chance to exchange lots of business cards. You quickly escape from somebody who is of no interest. They don't waste their sales pitch on a non-customer. It's really good. Great system.
Then, stick around for a prize of a visit to Taiwan. I did not win. But I did get a great goodie bag.
Like other Chinese and Asian countries they have wonderful colourful designs. I had admired the little portrayals of monuments on many stands at the show and hoped when they left they would give them away but supposed they would need them for the next exhibition. Back home, unpacking my bag, I found a great portrayal of the skyline.
Of course I shall attend World Travel market next year if I am in the UK. I shall return to the Taiwan stand. And I now feel my urge to visit has increased, and my feeling that I know the place and like it has grown.
To sum up, if you are running a conference breakfast organise;
1 Drinks;
2 Compere / MC;
3 Giving Timing and section updates;
4 Big Badges on Staff;
5 Offer a drink on arrival (water or non-alcoholic;
6 Label Food;
7 Save second round of food;
8 Speed-meeting.
9 Ensure everybody leaving gets the handout and/or goodie bag.
10 Keep a book to staple visitors' business cards and write alongside follow-up action.
11 Offer / promise to follow-up - don't only tell them to call you. They might lose your card, lose their coat or luggage, forget, have hundreds of cards, go back to work and be too busy.
12 If you cannot help them, pass them on to somebody who can.
Save some food for the latecomers or those at the back of the crowd to offer a choice to those who want meat or vegetarian. Label the food - it slows everybody down if each of the four people at the front has to ask what's in this and what is that - or you waste food when they don't want to look picky but then leave it.
1 Have a strong compere. Update every fifteen minutes with how long the presentation will last and when you will reach the food. Otherwise people with appointments will leave without waiting for food, prize draws, or awards to your team, photo opportunities, VIP speakers kept to the end.
More photos on websites later.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer.
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