Thursday 22 March 2012

African opportunities explored at jointly-organized Cape Town Seminar


Paris, 21 March 2012: The UFI Open Seminar in the Middle East/Africa and Expo Summit Africa, organized by UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, in collaboration with Manch Communications, was held in Cape Town from 15 – 17 March. Hosted by the Cape Town International Convention Centre and moderated by the CTICC CEO Rashid Toefy, the event attracted more than 70 participants from the 18 countries in 4 continents who came from as far afield as China, UK, USA and Thailand. It was a ‘not-to-be-missed’ chance to have a closer look at the African market and in particular the “Reality, Potential, Access and Needs” as its theme proposed.

“We are particularly glad that UFI could successfully stage its first event in Sub-Saharan Africa and create this networking and knowledge platform for its members and the industry professionals at large in such a successful event. This was possible only with the involvement and support of our partner in this event Manch Communications, and our host CTICC” commented Ibrahim Alkhaldi, UFI Middle East Africa Regional Manager.

The CEO of CTICC, Rashid Toefy, was very happy to host the 2012 Seminar “it has been an immense pleasure for me to host this UFI Seminar/Expo Summit here in Cape Town, and to be able to share with the international exhibition industry the potential of this massive market”. He shared his plans to double the exhibition facilities within the next few years, a clear sign that business is booming in Cape Town.

Speakers at the event included Craig Newman of the Johannesburg Expo Centre who gave a clear illustration to understanding business in Africa during the UFI Middle East Africa Chapter meeting which preceded the Open Seminar. JWC Cologne’s Dr. Gerd Weber focused on the industry’s concern for infrastructure and the need to improve current exhibition facilities in many countries in the region. Sylvie Fourn of Reed Exhibitions France and Douglas Emslie, the CEO of Tarsus plc both provided interesting case studies on their experience of working in Africa and ‘geo-cloning’ some of their key brands in the region.

Essam El Haddad, Chairman of the Arabian Development Group in Egypt, gave a very frank account of the ‘Arab Spring’, with a detailed study of the implications on the economy in general and the exhibition industry in particular. Thorsten Kolbinger of Ungerboeck in Germany and Corbin Ball from the USA rounded off the event with a look at new technologies for the exhibition industry.

UFI is the global association of the world’s leading tradeshow organizers and exhibition centre operators, as well as the major national and international exhibition associations and selected partners of the exhibition industry. UFI’s main goal is to represent, promote and support the business interests of its members and the exhibition industry.
UFI represents over 560 member organizations in 84 countries around the world. Almost 900 international trade fairs proudly bear the UFI approved label, a quality guarantee for visitors and exhibitors alike. UFI members continue to provide the international business community with a unique marketing media aimed at developing outstanding face-to-face business opportunities.

Official release

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Rapid Growth: E-Ticketing Service in CIS Countries – 50,000 sold in 6 months


Over 50,000 tickets for 600+ events were sold via e-ticketing service TicketForEvent in only 6 months after the service launch in September 2011. Ticket sales for b2b events (trade shows, conferences, seminars and trainings) as well as corporate and sports events were handled.
TicketForEvent is developed by ExpoPromo Group Ltd. – the company providing web-services for event organisers. One of the most well-known of them is the ExpoPromoter affiliate network. ExpoPromo Group Ltd. established regional brand in the online ticketing business in the CIS countries (Russia, Ukraine etc.) and East Europe, and thus approved itself as one of the market leaders in the b2b events industry. The service is integrated into the largest national (and international) online event calendars, thus achieving access to one of the largest event-related consumer database in the region.
In addition to international online payment methods this fully integrated web-based ticketing system covers all online payment methods available in the CIS countries. With TicketForEvent event attendees can book individual seats online and get the facility for tickets to be printed at home.
Leaders of the regional event market have highly appreciated all the benefits provided by the service. Among them are Intercharm, professional event (Reed Exhibitions), KIFF (KICF), IDCEE (TA Venture), Brian Tracy business seminar (WTC), WTCA General Assembly 2012. Sustainable development of TicketForEvent is also achieved due to customer-centered approach of the two local offices teams in Kyiv and Moscow.
Organisers of events with the world-famous brands, which were or will be held the CIS have already integrated the TicketForEvent widget to provide attendees with the widest range of regional payment methods. For example: TEDx, VMware events, Cannes Lions etc.
For event organisers the service fully automizes the attendees registration and ticket sales process and guarantees controllable visitors check-in at the venue with the help of free entry management software. Design of ticket sale widget and e-ticket are easily customized with the feature-rich tool. And statistics control panel provides the best possibility to analyze visitor data and estimate the effectiveness of the event. In addition to all above mentioned features, by implementing the TicketForEvent event organiser gets possibility to create a mini-affiliate network and conduct automatic ticket sales through the ExpoPromoter network (900+ b2b websites).
The service will continue to ticket international and regional events, offering a compelling alternative to the traditional manual ticket operations of the region. The TicketForEvent service is expected to be set up on 2,000 event websites and to sell 300,000 e-tickets by the end of the year. Thus, the ExpoPromo Group`s e-ticketing service will cover 50% of b2b events market in the CIS.


Company information.
ExpoPromoGroup Ltd. – international company, offering a complex of online services for the world events industry: ExpoPromoter  a system of b2b events information and e-tickets distribution on the Internet; TicketForEvent – online registration and e-ticketing service, HotelsForEvent – online hotel price comparison and booking system for event websites.

Head Office: United Kingdom

24 Greville St, London EC1N 8SS, UK

Tel.: +44 (0) 20 7043 5170
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7043 5180


Sales offices:
Ukraine:
3d Floor, 86i Bozhenko Street,
04070 Kiev, Ukraine.
Tel.: +38 (044) 200-03-91

Russia:
16, Letnikovskaya St.
115114 Moscow, Russia

Tel.: +7 (499) 969 80 24