Campaign of joint promotion of exhibitions
In the last four years the name CENTREX has become a brand name in exhibition world of Central and Eastern Europe.
The political and economical changes in CEE region demanded establishment of proper guidance in the exhibition industry for companies willing to do business through attending trade shows in the region. It was needed to provide creditworthy meters for justifying the investment made and as elsewhere it was found in the form of transparent, comparable, regionwise unified, audited statistics. Concept was drawn up and implemented in 1997 by the most significant exhibition organisers in the region. CENTREX International Exhibition Statistics Union was created and since then the ball rolls.
CENTREX has published her annual statistical reviews for 1998, 1999 and 2000 and now the Union decided to upgrade collaboration in the region. Being member of CENTREX means now to have a kind of quality certificate. Audited statistics improve chances in market competition among the organisers in the region plus - as it was foreseen - this competition means actually a "positive" drive for others as well which can help to boost them to achieving higher quality standards. And must not forget that in this competition the ultimate winner is the customer!
On the other hand, some exhibition organisers who deliver high quality but since they started only a few years ago, can not be as large and/or as reputed as the traditional organisers are. For them CENTREX represents a "bridgehead" in order to present themselves to Europe and to get themselves into European and world exhibition business easily.
Joint promotion of exhibitions
Transparent exhibition statistics being the first step in 2001 the members launched a coordinated marketing campaign with joint promotion of exhibitions as important and proven marketing tool for exhibitors and visitors alike.
This campaign is based on similar actions taken globally (e.g. in countries like Germany, France, UK or USA or by international organisations like UFI) and aimes at providing relevant information to captains of business in the region why and how exhibitions should be used to reach business success. The objective with this campaign it to re-position fairs and exhibitions as the traditional yet one of the best available multifunctional marketing tools within the marketing communication mix.
Responding to the call of the day the focus of the action is availability of best information through the World Wide Web.
With the first step CENTREX has updated content of her Web-site (www.centrexstat.org). With additional covered of information, further buttons at the home page lead to interactive possibility to the web-visitor to get to know the present exhibition trends and know-how on basis of findings of the latest American, English, German, Australian and Polish surveys conducted in the recent years. This section gives the visitors insight into the values exhibition industry partners attribute to exhibitions and fairs. In addition the pages give some practical hints/hot tips to the companies how can be used the exhibitions for achieving their business targets. (how to exhibit).
As another field of coverage the web-visitors can read here exhibitors' references, testimonials: statements and opinions of companies and institutions who have achieved business success through participation at exhibitions and they trust the values and efficiency of this marketing tool in the future as well.
Since the members of CENTREX organise about 200 exhibitions a year - by far the most significant fairs in Central-Eastern Europe - a search engine has been implemented to serve the direct sectorial interests of the companies who try to find their market in this region. This will ease their search by covered sectors, countries, cities, dates etc. bringing up the relevant information on CENTREX member events together with their most important market value indicators.
CENTREX as a professional body promoting exhibitions makes every effort in her communication both inside and outside the respective countries to reflect the most important advantages of the fairs: the face - to - face communication platform.
In the spirit the members regularly organise open trade seminars in the region, like the one in Budapest, November 19, 2001. (The latest workshops were in Brno on October 17 and in Kielce in Poland June 28 this year. These meetings gave excellent opportunity to exchange professional experiences, getting to know of the latest trends and assiting to deploy them by more organisers of the region.)