Palme 2014

 

At best, the 2014 edition of Palme can be described as mixed. While the organiser will be pleased with the attendance, the small show floor and conspicuous absence of some major players will be cause for concern.

To start with the positives, Palme again acted as a useful meeting point. International manufacturer representatives and local companies all made the trip to Dubai’s World Trade Centre. Indeed, the coffee shops around the hall and the main aisles were filled with conversations as many visitors used the show as the venue for meetings.

As such, the quality of visitor was very high, and led many of the exhibitors to describe the show as a success. ‘For us it has been so positive. We were worried that it’s a small exhibition with one hall but it’s been good,’ said Pro Lab’s Joe Chidiac. ‘Before you had a lot of people coming to visit the exhibition that were getting the catalogues and moving out. Now you are getting quality people coming, serious guys are coming to see the products and to do deals on the spot.’

Equally, it provided a way for distributors such as Echo Beats and Pro Lab to announce their presence on the market. This gave brands including TW Audio, Powersoft, Audac, Tasker and Lewitt Microphones the opportunity to highlight some of their products.

‘For us as a company, since we are a newcomer to the market, we wanted the other distributors and principals on the market to know there is a new player, and I think we achieved our goals,’ noted Echo Beats’ Mazen Mustafa. ‘We had some good visitors from different parts of the region, and I was a little surprised that a lot of Africans came.’ Despite this assessment, Mr Mustafa was keen to add an overall assessment of the show. ‘We’ve been visiting Palme for eight or nine years now, I recall once I had to go through three or four different halls to visit all the stands. Nowadays it’s not even half a hall. They have to do something about that.’

The positive comments spread to the more established distributors such as SGTC Pro, Procom Middle East and Aaviss. Each had manufacturer representatives on their stands from the likes of QSC, Tendzone, Bosch, Avolites, Reference Laboratory and Pan Acoustics, and all were quick to praise the attendee quality.

‘I felt that the quality of visitors was excellent,’ said Procom’s Rami Harfouch. ‘People were serious about products, they had projects in mind and they wanted to move forward quickly. I think the exhibition has been a great success for us in terms of business leads and product introduction, and connections with suppliers and clients.’

‘For me the event has been very positive,’ added Pan Acoustics' Jan Leerschool. ‘I’ve seen visitors from Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman, Sudan, Kenya and even a couple from China!’

‘It's been a surprisingly busy,’ agreed Avolites’ Steve Warren. ‘We've been doing business here in the region for 14 years, so we have some strong connections with the companies here and feel it’s really important to come back and not just re-establish those connections and keep them strong but to meet new companies.’

More positives can be taken from the educational programme which had some interesting topics that were relevant to the local industry. Speakers such as Flash Entertainment’s Lee Charteris acted as a significant draw and QSC’s Mark Bailey equally presented to a full room with his seminar on things not to do to an amplifier.

‘Our seminar was full and everyone liked it, it was amazing,’ commented SGTC Pro’s Simon Daniel who hosted QSC on its striking booth. ‘The models that we have on show, like the TouchMix digital mixer and the digital amplifiers, have been great. For us it has been a very busy time, much better than last year.’

Despite this, there are some serious issues that the organiser must address. The show floor itself was compact in size with the end wall appearing much sooner than many were expecting. As visitors quickly completed circuits of the exhibition, there was a general feeling of ‘is that it?’ and conversation turned to how much Palme has changed since its glory days.

‘We were here last year, and I think this year is worse,’ said Tendzone’s Peter Er. ‘People that we know already are here, so it is a meeting point. It’s quite sad, they used to do good shows over the years.’

While the attendance figures will doubtless be good, many visitors came with a different agenda to that which the organiser would be hoping for. Many people made the trip to Palme simply to confirm if they made the right decision not to exhibit. The sad consensus seemed to be that they did.

Adding to this issue is that a number of the visitors were from the companies which were highly conspicuous by their absence. Many of the large stands from previous years have disappeared from the exhibition, as companies look at other ways to use their marketing budgets.

To its credit, Palme organiser Informa appears to be trying to make improvements. ‘We had researchers on the show floor finding out what exhibitors want, not just in terms of the visitors but also the format that the show is in, making it into more of an experience type of event rather than just an exhibition hall with shell schemes only,’ said exhibition director Richard Brook. ‘Getting that right is going to be the challenge.’

The dilemma presented by Palme 2014 is that while the local entertainment industry clearly has an appetite for a meeting point where it can gather to discuss business, it seems to have decided en masse that Palme is no longer the right vehicle for this. It is the job of the organiser to prove it is listening and can make changes to encourage more of the local industry to play an active role in the show. If it does not, the future looks bleak for Palme.

2014 Dates: 15-17 April

2015 Dates: 10-12 May

Venue: Dubai World Trade Centre

Total exhibitors: 73

Attendance: TBC

Contact: www.palme-middleeast.com