How to Attend Chinese Trade Fairs More Effectively - Part One - Realistic Plan for Daily Meetings
After all your preparations and travel, you finally arrive in China.
First Trade Fair Day
You should be sufficient energized after a good night's sleep and ready for your first day at the Trade Fair.
If you start in Hong Kong you should already have your visitor pass and do not need to queue up at the registration area.
If you are in China, you first need to register either at your hotel or near the entrance area of the exhibition centre to receive your visitor entry badge.
Buy a Trade Fair Catalogue
The first thing you want to do is to buy a Trade Fair Catalogue and retreat to a place where you can sit down and make your day's plan for meetings. Several coffee shops at the exhibition centre are perfect for this.
Your Meeting Plan
You should already know the booth numbers and locations of the suppliers you have been in contact with. It is easy to make a plan to organize your meetings based on their locations around the fair grounds.
If you downloaded the floor plan from the Trade Organizer earlier, you can save time by doing this planning in the comfort of your hotel room.
Spending some time on the Internet locating the floor plan is worth the effort because it makes your work more efficient at the Trade Fair.
If you try to arrange meetings at specific times during the exhibition, you will find your schedule is out of control after only one or two meetings.
Be realistic in your planning. The following example should give you an idea what is realistic and what is not.
Trade Fair Hours
Here are the typical opening hours for major Hong Kong Trade Fairs and the Canton Trade Fair:
Hong Kong - 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM = 9 hours per day; the last day is only from 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Canton - 9:30 AM - 6:00 PM = 8 1/2 hours per day for all 50 exhibition days
Assuming you want to visit each Trade Fair for three full days, you will have a total of only 27 hours for Hong Kong and 25 1/2 hours for Guanghzou to find what you need. Most visitors do not attend Trade Fairs every day because they need travel time between Hong Kong and Guangzhou or to other destinations.
If you have meetings scheduled with 10 key suppliers for an hour each, you end up having only 17 hours for any other meetings in Hong Kong and 15 1/2 hours in Guangzhou.
Other meetings might last approximately a 1/2 hour each. At these you will only collect catalogues and leave your business card. For a very busy visit this works out to you meeting with 34 additional suppliers in Hong Kong and 31 in Guangzhou.
But let's be realistic, you need to go to the washroom, wait until your contact person is free, eat something, and walk from one booth to another. Deduct that time from the remaining hours and you will be surprised how little time is available for additional supplier meetings.
Don't call me a pencil pusher for giving too detailed of information but that's what a realistic plan is all about.
About the Author:Klaus-Dieter Hanke is a professional exporter/importer for more than 2 decades. He is the author of a successful eight ebook series "Importing from China".
His company WebMediaBiz provides consultancy services to worldwide importers.
Claim his free eBook "7 Tips to more Successfully Import from China" from his website ==> http://www.webmediabiz.com now.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Attend Chinese Trade Fairs More Effectively - Part One - Realistic Plan for Daily Meetings