SNIEC总经理Michael Kruppe：东盟贸易增长提振上海展馆业务，场馆运营暂不依赖AI

ES. Looking back at the last 12 months, what have been some of the most significant exhibitions and events held at SNIEC, and what has their performance told you about the current state of the market? In particular, which shows have seen the strongest growth in terms of exhibition space, exhibitors and visitors?

Michael Kruppe. Looking back at the last 12 months, SNIEC has experienced an unusually strong period. One reason is that ASEAN has become China’s strongest export region, far surpassing Europe and the US. As a result, many Chinese and regional Asian exhibitors are targeting Shanghai as a leading marketplace to showcase their products and services.

This has led to unexpected short-term increases in booked exhibition space at SNIEC, particularly for shows such as bauma, Furniture China, Shanghaitex and CeMAT. Other sectors, including medical and pharmaceuticals as well as chemicals, are also benefiting from this trend, which we expect to continue over the next one to two years.
ES. SNIEC has a strong portfolio of recurring international and domestic exhibitions. How are these repeat events performing compared with previous editions? Are you seeing exhibitions returning with larger footprints, more exhibitors or higher visitor numbers, and what are the key sectors driving this growth?

Michael Kruppe. Most of our customers are longterm organizers, some even since the opening of SNIEC in 2001. Some of them were increasing and some kept stable or even reducing over time. However , most of them are still inside SNIEC and as we have a strong customer relation network and history, we can balance such effect either within the existing shows ore we add new shows into our portfolio.

ES. From infrastructure, technology and operational capabilities to services and customer experience, what are the key strengths that make SNIEC a world-class exhibition venue today? And where are you investing to further strengthen its competitiveness?

Michael Kruppe. You may be surprised to hear that unlike the business of organizers with lots of AI and digital solutions for matchmaking or content creating, we in SNIEC are still very hands on, even working with excel sheets. Lots of the details of every organizer and their shows are very complex so that even the most recent KI may not be able to solve it, as the management of booking time slots and placing it properly to other non-conflict shows, etc requires lots of human touch. We love that and that is also what makes the difference. We do not overdo our services or we do not overpromise but we walk the talk and besides we are also not so far behind as we are already introducing modern technologies to operate i.e the traffic, logistics and safety in SNIEC.

ES. Looking at China as a whole, how would you assess the performance of the exhibition industry over the past 12–24 months? Which sectors are showing resilience or growth, and what are the biggest challenges currently facing organisers, exhibitors and venues?
Michael Kruppe. Overall China is max. stable very much depending on the region and tier. Most tier 2 /3 cities or regions are not doing well and even tier 1 is not a guarantee that the numbers go up sharply. Best case for tier 1 is probably within 0-2pct growth.

The biggest challenge for every show and thus for the venue as well is lack of cashflow for the exhibitors in most industries. There are a few industries, like medical, construction, environmental protection or healthcare which are doing better. Generally consumption is weak and this will affect the country for some time to come. Shanghai is traditionally in a better position and we are more optimistic here.

ES. Shanghai remains one of Asia’s major exhibition hubs. What kind of momentum are you currently seeing in the Shanghai market? Are international participation, overseas exhibitors and visitors, and the scale of major trade shows moving in a positive direction?

Michael Kruppe. There is an interesting fact for non -asia experienced visitors. When they come to a SNIEC show they may notice the alleged lack of international exhibitors or visitors just by looking into their faces. The truth is that lots of European or American exhibitors/visitors are not coming anymore. However, as I mentioned above, the ASEAN countries getting stronger so there is still lots of international participation from Asia but the people do not look western anymore like in the last 20 years. For us as a venue this means we may rethink our F&B set up to better cater Asian taste.

ES. AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to practical applications across the exhibition industry. From the perspective of a major venue operator, where do you see AI having the greatest potential over the next few years-in venue operations, visitor experience, maintenance, data, security or organiser services?

Michael Kruppe. AI will or already play a major role for organizers to manage and create content or matchmaking tools, analyse consumption behaviour, flow behavior etc. For a venue I see AI limited to be used in what we call Predictable Facility Maintenance. We will pilot our own agent soon and will watch it closely.

Besides we may consider to use AI for traffic and onsite operations. However I do not see a major change of game here. The solutions we have today are mainly digital so not really AI but already very efficient.

ES. Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest opportunities for SNIEC and the wider Asian exhibition industry over the next three to five years? And what changes do you believe will be most important for venues to remain competitive in an increasingly connected and rapidly evolving global exhibition market?

Michael Kruppe. Whatever the changes or technologies will be in our industry I believe that what we have done successfully the last 20 years will also work the next 20 years and that is being fully committed to supply the best and newest service to the customer.

So we will continue to listen to organizers ideas and suggestions but do not expect that SNIEC suddenly will implement a rocket science, AI based new strategy. Our slogan and credo describes the customers expectation:

S+SAFETY, SERVICE, SATISFACTION

And I do not see this will be changed in the future to come.