The industry is leveraging on trade exhibitions as business platforms to get access to international and domestic business. Come September and Andheri East-based companies like UBM India, IED Communications and Pico Event Management will start warming up for their future trade on processed food, energy etc. Increasing number of trade shows being organised reflects the keenness of the industry to leverage on trade exhibitions and conferences. However, over the time trade shows have turned into routine affairs that are dismissed as yet another creative game plan to attract customers without delivering results. "Fairs reach a saturation point, when show organisers stop innovating or don't know how to handle competition. It is the show organiser's ability to forecast and read market trends to stay competitive," said Pradeep Gopalan, organiser of shows like Bakery Business, Restaurant and Catering and Salon Culinaire's. Thus, the learned lot is resorting to discretion before being part of any fair. Prakash Vaswani from New India Electric in south Mumbai said, "We have taken a deliberate decision to visit one show per city in a year. This helps us manage our budget." Vaswani is a regular at shows held by Andheri organisers. Trade fairs' relevance and success reflects the progress of the sector being showcased. According to Gopalan, in the early '90s, during the IT (information technology) boom, fairs on computer hardware and software were the order of the day. Post 9/11, tourism fairs raised its head. The number of shows multiplied when the industry realised that foreign traffic could not be relied on and domestic tourism emerged as the saving grace for the industry. Thus, travel shows started appearing immediately in almost all metros and tier II and III cities. Similarly with real estate, food and hospitality and gems and jewellery. As the industry gains prominence, shows mushroom. SHOW DEFICIENCIES Fairs, nowadays, lack exciting ideas leaving an illusionary impression on participants seeking an insight on changing business dynamics. "Visitors seek a good bargain from such shows, while the exhibitor is bothered about the quantity and quality of the audience that will purchase or influence decisions," Gopalan said. For a country like India, which house over a thousand exhibitions every year, need for information services endorsing technologically and professionally planned fairs is realised. The Indian Trade Promotion Council (ITPO) seems to serve very little purpose in this regard. Few trade organisers in the country care to create a set up that promote business in a genuine way while the rest are busy selling space to fill the slots. Thus, it becomes even important for a company, which allots a huge share of its promotional budget on trade fairs, to discriminate between the two. Infrastructure deficiencies are also irk exhibitors. Rob Sahi, marketing head of Andheri-based UBM India said, "We spend as much money in India as we pay in Germany to buy rental space for exhibitions. However, India is nowhere close to the West, China or countries like Indonesia and Thailand." "Though cities like Hyderabad and Gurgaon have seen some new convention centres but they are very small in size to hold large scale exhibitions. The one in White fields in Bangalore is over 80 km away from the city," Andheri-based businessman Bipin Sinha said. "Apart from proper infrastructure, the security aspect also needs to be taken care of," said Vaswani from New India Electric. Nilesh Amritker from EnvironcareLabs, who is a frequent at Andheri-based conferences added, "There are just too many shows happening. It would be great if organisers of smaller shows come together to make it a one big event." Gopalan says, "For staging a 20-stall exhibition show or a 100-stall exhibition the effort that goes into delivering a successful show is the same. Preparations for a brand new trade fair should ideally have at least a minimum 2-year head start. There are many aspects as far as preparation is concerned. Three key areas being; exhibitor acquisition, visitor promotion, back end operations and on site capabilities." Sahi said, "To promote a show to exhibitors we need at least 18 months and six months to attract visitors." UBM India holds around 23 shows in the country along with over 70 conferences for diverse sectors like pharma, security, tourism, energy, construction, jewelry, transport and logistics and food. The company has an upcoming show, Fi India, targeting the food ingredients industry in September this year. The show promises to play a driving force to India's processed food sector. The most important tool required for preparing for a fair is networking through the right channels. According to Sinha, who has years of experience in organising trade exhibitions said, "Networking is scientifically done and is a carefully executed process."