Sessions with associations for holding a more authentic IRANPLAST exhibition

In an interview with Hadi Zonouzi-Asl, the manager of the 9th International IRANPLAST Exhibition, we asked him about the layout of the halls.
“We have 16 halls in this year’s exhibition including the whole halls of the western side of the Tehran Fairground, which are 11 halls, and 5 halls in the middle part. Halls 6, 7 and 27 are allocated to the Polymer Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association. We estimate that about 50 to 60 big manufacturer companies have been located in these halls. We expect to have the list of their names in the next 10 days.
One third of Hall 8 & 9 is allocated to Iran Masterbatch Producers Association, and the rest of it is given to some petrochemical companies and the exhibition sponsors. The companies related to raw materials and services are located in Hall 35. Hall 38 is assigned to the companies who have paid the fees in currency, including the foreign companies. By now we have no detailed information about these companies. Hall 38A is given to the machine manufacturers that attend independently and the companies that could not register in the halls 6, 7 and 27.
Halls 40 and 41, as well as other halls such as Milad and Persian Gulf are allocated to the category of products, and also to the companies who could not register in the raw materials category.
Apart from the stands given to Disposable Containers Manufacturers Association, Masterbatch Producers Association, Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association, petrochemical companies and foreign exhibitors, we have assigned 300 stands up to now. The countries Turkey, Italy, Austria, India, China, and the Persian Gulf countries will have national pavilions at the IRANPLAST exhibition, and they will cover about 100 or more companies. Some companies from Spain, Germany and Britain have also announced their attendance.”

At the beginning of the pre-registration process it was possible for users to book booths from different computer systems simultaneously. Didn’t it cause a problem?
“We tried not to restrict the users, but we didn’t expect to face such an attack! We suddenly realized that some people had signed in from different points of the country. Even some people outside the country had tried to book booths in this way. This decreased our speed considerably, and many companies were dissatisfied with the situation. We tried to guide them and asked them to be patient. Fortunately, most of them could book their desired booths, later. The speed problems lasted just for one hour, and those who had signed in from several points were only 30 people. In the next stage, we solved the problem and the registration system warned people that each username can sign in just from one system at a time.”

The exhibition has got sponsors this year. How the earnings will be spent? Is there any conferences or workshops? Or will you invite commercial teams to the exhibition?
“Some companies attend the exhibition as sponsors and some as collaborators. There is no noticeable sponsorship and the company that attracts sponsors gets a percentage. However, we will have significant income in comparison to the last year, which will be used for all the exhibition’s ancillary costs such as publishing the books and leaflets of the exhibition, and the exhibition statue. In addition, we are going to have more TV teasers.
We have to obey the Trade Promotion Organization instructions. They are supposed to help us by bringing foreign teams from the countries that can be the target market for our products. In addition, from the next week we will have some sessions with the companies who benefit from this exhibition, in order to get help from them in attracting foreign commercial teams. Our budget is not too large and we should manage it the best. We will spend all of it on the exhibition.
After the registration process is finished, we will hold some sessions with associations and guilds to talk about the ways of improving the exhibition different aspects. Because of the problems between the associations, the sessions will be held separately. We will try to engage them in planning for the exhibition. We are negotiating with an institute working in the field of polymer and petrochemical industry to hold a conference during the exhibition period. We will strongly support the companies or associations that want to hold ancillary conferences. In a nutshell we will try to benefit from all our friend’s ideas.”

It seems interesting to invite the managers of the famous exhibitions, in the field of polymer industry, both in the neighboring countries and worldwide.
“Yes, this is one of our plans. We will invite the managers of the trade fairs in the field of polymer industry and will offer them special facilities. The manager of Messe Düsseldorf , the organizer of the leading international trade fair K, will be present at IRANPLAST 2014. We may be able to organize the next IRANPLAST exhibition in collaboration with Messe Düsseldorf.”

What is done for advertising in foreign media?
“We haven’t put any ads in the foreign journals yet. The ones that exist have been placed by our foreign exhibitors. Since we are a state company, we have some limitations in advertising abroad. From 23th of July, we will start advertising in foreign countries. We are also negotiating to advertise in Iran’s international TV channels.”

As the exhibition manager, are you satisfied with the registration process?
“I am not satisfied adequately. I expected that our registration system would work better. According to a poll conducted online by Baspar magazine, more than 60% of the applicants were satisfied with the online registration process. Although a special server had been allocated for this job to avoid line disconnection, we faced some problems. During the registration process, we received some complaints, but the number of these complaints was less than what I had expected. I demand all the applicants to send us their complaints about the online registration process through Baspar magazine or the exhibition website. This will help us to eliminate all the problems for the following years. I conclude that the applicants who tried to sign in from several computers and failed, besides the people who disagree with online registration, form the dissatisfied applicants.”