Hendrik Schelkes explains why the Pro Dimex trade fair is interesting for distributors of promotional items in Europe and US.
Interview with Hendrik Schelkes from Pro-dimex.
Henk : Hendrik, could you please explain in a few words what the pro-dimex tradefair is. Who is exhibiting and who is supposed to visit this fair?
Hendrik : Pro-dimex is an exhibition only for the market of promotional products. So on the exhibitors side you will find mainly producers of promotional products from Asia and Eastern Europe.
The targeted visitors can be divided into three groups:
– European Traders for Promotional Products ( we will invite about 5,000 traders!)
– Promotional Agencies, who are working with the huge budgets of their clients (we invite about 5,000 promotional companies!)
– The Industry – European Key players from various industries (banks, aviation, automobile, hotel, traveling), we will invite more than 80,000 potential industry companies.
Summarized pro-dimex is a platform, where European companies/agencies/traders can meet their future suppliers directly without somebody in between!
Henk : How do you compare the Cologne fair with the PSI in Düsseldorf?
Hendrik :Pro-dimex and PSI have one major thing in common: the exhibited products, Promotional Products. The core business of each fair however is completely different. PSI does not allow Asian producers to exhibit in their fair to protect the European Industry against the growing market in Asia. But we should not close our eyes for the developments of the market. 75% of all promotional products are produced in Asia already. Exhibitors in PSI are traders or importers, who often import from Asia. Pro-Dimex however they invite producers from Asia to Europe/USA. This reduces the costs for the European/USA industry, as they order directly from Asia without any third party and thus much cheaper. This often leads to a higher order volume in our fair. So after all pro-dimex and PSI are not competitors, as the core business of the two exhibitions is completely different.
Henk : And how do you compare Las Vegas fair with PPAI or ASI fairs ? I’ve seen that in Vegas the pro-dimex has the same dates as the ASI show.
Hendrik : The general similarities/differences are the same. Yes, pro-Dimex will be at the same time as ASI. This will certainly not offend ASI, as they are such a strong fair for decades already. But certainly we have chosen the dates on purpose. The whole industry will be in Las Vegas at that time, so there is no better date for doing pro-dimex. We are sure that many of the visitors from ASI will also visit pro-dimex and we will invite a lot more industry companies.
Henk : If I understand well, pro-dimex brings the HK fairs to Europe in such a way that buyers do not need to travel to HK and China ?
Hendrik : This is only right for some part of the sentence.
Yes, pro-dimex brings Asia companies to Europe/US. This is an advantage for both parties. The Europan/US companies do not have to travel and the Asian suppliers will meet a lot more overseas buyers here than on any other fair in Aisa.
But what is very important: You cannot compare the Hong Kong/China GIFT Fairs with pro-dimex. Certainly there are some intersections, but the general idea is totally different. Ken Fair as an outstanding example is a fair where you can find almost any product which could potentialy work as a gift (arts, crafts, Christmas items, souvenirs, flowers etc.). In contrast to that, pro-dimex is a very specialized fair only for promotional products. Certainly this specialization leads to a lower quantity of visitors and exhibitors. But the quality of visitors is much higher. Visitors will much more likely find a fitting counterpart for doing succesful business. Ken Fair is a general fair with a very high quantity in all exhibition key data, pro-dimex is a very specialized fair with a very high quality.
Thanks Hendrik for your time.
Pro-dimex / Cologne / Germany / 31 January – 02 Februari 2007
Pro-dimex / Las Vegas / USA / 19-21 March 2007