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IN the past, due to the relatively small scale of most trade exhibitions in the Middle East, their contribution to society was not obvious.
Exhibitions were only treated as events that facilitate buyers and sellers to make deals. However, with the globalisation of world trade, exhibitions began expanding in scale in the region, and people began to realise the benefits that conventions and exhibitions can bring to the local tourist industry and related business service sectors.
The success of the region's external trade today is inseparable from the robust growth of its exhibition industry over the past decade.
The exhibition industry in the Middle East is booming, and the economic rewards are widespread. Benefits include the generation of expenditure and jobs for exhibition and other service industries and supporting sectors, including hotels, food and beverage, retail, stand design and construction, and logistics and freight forwarding.
Exhibitions have such an all-embracing effect that exhibitors sign up for the next year even before a current show gets over. This has happened in Bahrain where exhibitors already booked space for gulfBID 2009 even before the third edition of the construction and interiors event wound to a close.
The show has been voted the best ever by companies that took space at the show.
Bahrain's exhibition industry is vitalising the national economy, said Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
Deals worth a few millions, decisions to set up shop in Bahrain and a rise in the number of high quality visitors became the highlights of gulfBID 2008, which attracted leading manufacturers, star designers and major specifiers from the region and beyond.
Alomi Real Wood Floors stole the show in deals announcing contracts worth $1 million each on the first and second days of the exhibition, which remains Bahrain's foremost construction and contemporary interiors event.
"No other show so successfully connects specifiers with exhibitors, all of whom have been selected by industry experts. The inspirational environment is perfect for unveiling new products, raising brand awareness and showcasing the greatest products and designs from around the world," said Albert Douglas CEO of Alomi.
Deals at the show clearly illustrated how the exhibition has helped companies to target Saudi Arabia from Bahrain.
"The show has grown in size, the floor is well laid out and we are getting numerous inquiries from people, especially from Saudi Arabia," Mr Douglas added.
More than 1,200 visitors attended gulfBID 2008 on the first day of the show, the largest number of any of the exhibitions to date. And the show is set to break records with total visitor numbers likely to exceed 5,000.
"We experienced the best first-day ever and there were signs that things were just going to get better for the record number of exhibitors this year," said Jubran Abdulrahman, managing director of Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE), co-organiser of the show along with dmg world media dubai.
"We already had the largest number of exhibitors for the event, up 25 per cent from last year's 155 to 200 from 19 countries this year and the feedback we received from them was very good.
"The show generated a lot of excitement and a lot of local, regional and international exhibitors are already asking to sign up for next year with many of them wanting more space for the next event," he added.
