Exclusive Interview with Dora Leung of China (Zhongshan) International Games & Amusement Fair

First held in 2008, Games & Amusement Fair managed to become the world’s most forward-looking and the most attractive high-end trading fair, with contracts worth millions of RMB signed at site. From 2010 to 2016, G & A was embedded in 《Guangdong Culture-rich Province Planning Framework》, the exhibition scale rose from 44,000sqm to 75,000sqm, and the number of exhibitors has risen from 243 to more than 400, which makes G & A one of the largest-scale game and amusement fair in China. This years G & A will be held between  Aug 11^th-13th! Make sure you don’t miss out on this event with more then 460 exhibitors waiting for you!

EEG: The company you represent is Guangdong Grandeur International Exhibition Group, the organizer of China (Zhongshan) International Game & Amusement Fair 2017. Will you please briefly introduce this International Exhibition Group? What are your achievements, goals, future plans?

Dora: As one of the best trade show organizers in China, Grandeur annually organizes several tens of large-scale professional international exhibitions involving more than 60 industries, mostly in domestic major cities like Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai, Chongqing, etc, where we have subsidiaries. In 2015, our company held our first oversea exhibition, Fun & Biz Africa, in South Africa, which was certainly a milestone in our company history.

So far, the total exhibition area of the Group has exceeded 300 thousand ㎡, accommodating more than 5,000 exhibitors and 730 thousand buyers, 20 thousand of whom are oversea buyers.

Over the years, we have successfully forged more than ten world-leading exhibitions that have really made a difference to the industries, and our two game and amusement related trade shows – G&A (China (Zhongshan) International Game & Amusement Fair) and AAA (Asia Amusement & Attraction Expo) – are regarded as our crown jewels.

Our goals are to become the best exhibition service provider in China and build an effective trade and information platform for worldwide buyers and exhibitors, help Chinese enterprises to go global and provide oversea companies opportunities to tap into Chinese market even Asia market.

EEG: The first International Game & Amusement Fair, one of the largest-scale game and amusement fairs, was organized in China in 2010. What changes and results can you tell us about that have happened since the first fair?

Dora: G&A were actually held directly by the government before 2010. And the result was not very good. As the government found that CIAE (China (Guangzhou) International Game & Amusement Exhibition), one of our most successful show was doing very great at that time. So the Zhongshang Government decided to appoint our company to the organization of G&A since from 2010.

Ever since we take over the show, it has been growing at an amazing speed. In 2010, 243 exhibitors attended G&A ,covering 44000 sq.m, and no oversea attendees at all. Last year, compared with the first edition, our exhibitor attendance and show floor area almost doubled respectively to 460 and 75,000 sq.m. Visitor turnout also for the first time broke 100,000, not to mention the significant increase in oversea attendees thanks to we have been promoting the show on more than 100 international media partners, such as Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), InterGame, Play Meter, Your Guide, etc. And most importantly, more and more exhibitors successfully boost their business through our show, and the number of cooperation agreements reached on site increase year by year.

EEG: Please tell us more about the participants, the companies who will exhibit at this year’s fair. Where do they come from and which brands do they represent?

Dora: World-renowned enterprises from China and exhibits including Amusement Ride Manufacturers: Golden Horse, UNIS, Wahlap, Golden Dragon, G-look, Jiuhua, Derun Rides, Kingsun, Water Park Equipment Manufactures: Daxin, Dalang, Uibit, Children Indoor Playground Suppliers: Cowboy, Lebaobei, Yingwang Buluo, Theme Park Design Companies: UNITE ART, Matee, Huazhongxing, Shi Merit, Leshanshui, Ebulliency, Max, Icom, etc.

International exhibitors: Enone from Hongkong,Delta Strike from Australia, Zierer from Germany,Arihant Water Park Equipment from India,Dreampark and Intercard from America, Pool Safe Inc from Canada, UNO Parks and Zampera from Italy, etc.

EEG: If a company wants to take part in the fair you organize annually, what are the steps it should take in order to exhibit at one of your future fairs?

Dora: After the company makes the decision to be exhibitor. Select the booth and fill out the “Application Form” with company stamp before sending email to the Organizing Committee. The exhibition fee the must be transferred to the appointed account within five working days after the exhibition application is confirmed. Since then, the exhibitor should prepare all the relevant things to display on the fair including exhibit, flights, hotel and so on.

EEG: Will you share some figures, numbers about the last fairs and can you compare them with your expectations of this year’s fair?

Dora: Last year, G&A hosted a little over 400 exhibitors on an exhibition floor spanning over 75000 sq.m. Over 500 new products made their debut on site and contracts worth over 3.5 billion yuan were signed.

This year, covering 100,000 sq.m, G&A will prepare to receive 460 exhibitors and visitors of over 26,000 person-times.

EEG: Will you please tell us about the feedback you have already received about the previous fairs and do these comments help you in organizing better and more successful fairs?

Dora: The best feedback is that most of the exhibitors and buyers feel very satisfied with G&A .That’s why the re-attendance rate of our exhibitors is as high as 90%. And even though we have planed nearly 100,000 sq.m for this year, 80% exhibition booths were sold within a month, and a lot of exhibitors have to drop their plan of enlarging their booths due to the limited space.

EEG: Please speak about the venue or venues of this year’s fair.

Dora: The venues: Zhongshan Convention Center, the main venue and Guangdong Game & Amusement Culture Industry City (GD Game City), the sub-venue Situated in Gangkou Town, Zhongshan City, Guangdong Game & Amusement Culture Industry City (GD Game City), is an industrial park that gathers thousands of China’s leading game and amusement enterprises.

Zhongshan is one of the most important exporter of game and amusement equipment. Its is reported that nearly 30% of the world’s amusement rides and arcade games come from Zhongshan, which has also given birth to a lot of noted amusement equipment manufacturers.

EEG: How popular are amusement parks in China and do you expect a lot of visitors, families? What would you suggest them to visit?

Dora: Amusement parks are very popular not only among visitors but also among investors. According to CBG (Chinabaogao.com), 64 new theme park projects with a total investment of about 23.8 billion USD will be launched during 2015-2020. And data from AECOM suggests that by 2030, Chinese theme parks will annually receive visitors of over 423 million person-times.

Theme parks that belong to Chinese amusement park magnates like Oversea Chinese Town, Chime Long, Fantawild, Songcheng, are highly recommended, for they were ranked among the world’s top 10 theme park groups by AECOME in 2016.

EEG: Organizing such a big, international event must be very overwhelming and difficult, but I think it is also very satisfying. Please speak about the most pleasant and motivating moments and experiences you have had since this fair was started.

Dora: The most pleasant and motivating moment that we can see the exhibitors’ and buyers’ smile of success and fruit, and when they share with us their good news on the show, such as how much contracts they have signed or how many new clients they have made. What’s more, it is equally satisfying to see the show successfully concluded with an even larger scale than the preceding year.

EEG: During the fair are there events, maybe seminars, discussions where the exhibitors can change their ideas and information about their companies? Do you consider giving the chance of advertising the exhibitors important?

Dora: On August 9 and the morning of August 10, 2017 World Games & Amusement Development Conference will make a stage pose in Hilton Zhongshan Downtown. Worldwide famous speakers and industrial professionals are invited to attend.

During 14:00 to 17:30 of August 10th, the Second Conference on Chinese Cultural Products Marketing of Game & Amusement Products, is to be held in the same venue as which was spoke highly of by our speakers and attendees from China,USA, France, Malaysia,India.

Helping exhibitors to advertise their brand has always been a very important part of our service. We invite our exhibitors to take part in our concurrent events where they can advertise themselves as speakers, event sponsors, etc. Sometimes, they are also advertised in our show catalogs, or on the back of our visitor badges, and so on.

EEG: In what will this fair differ from the previous ones and what do you wish for this fair?

Dora: Now that our show has matured greatly whether with respect to the number and quality of exhibitors or visitors, we think it would be better if our attendees could not only gain economic benefit, but also useful information at our show. Therefore, we are going to held the first World Games & Amusement Development Conference which will facilitate the growth of game and amusement industry to some extent.