Restrictions in New Delhi

When an event organiser says there is no choice but to opt for a forced venue, there is definitely a compromise on the expectation levels. Such is the case with Mumbai-based Electronics Today, India's oldest techno-economics monthly and international electronics exhibitions and conferences organiser, which conducts Asia's largest smart-cards exposition annually in India. Electronics Today conducted its sixth smart-card technology and applications event SmartCard Expo 2004 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from September 2 to 4. The organiser also conducted two other events — the first international conference and exhibition on radio frequency indentification devices (RFID) technology — RfidIndia Expo 2004, and e-Security 2004, in conjunction with the SmartCards Expo 2004 at the same venue. Pragati Maidan, a part of the Indian Government's Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), hosted the SmartCard Expo for the third successive year. The event has grown every year. For instance, in its inaugural year in 1999 there were 42 exhibitors. This year the figure rose to 200, increasing from 160 or so in 2003. Overall, there were 900 foreign business visitors with 80 per cent of them from Asia, the majority of them from Southeast Asia. Sharing his experiences in hosting SmartCard Expo 2004, Electronics Today executive director Manmeet Sabarwal says while the event is growing, much more can be done to make it a memorable experience, especially for the business community from abroad. "The last few yeas have witnessed an explosive growth in technology and the application of smart cards the world over and India has also seen a promising growth, too. This event is a gateway to the emerging sector," says Sabarwal. This year Electronics Today had several additions, which made the event bigger than before. Spread over 149 acres of prime land in New Delhi, Pragati Maidan is the flagship venue for exhibitions, with 62,000sqm of covered exhibition space in 16 halls, besides 10,000sqm open display area. The organisers booked halls 7A, B, C and E along with the foyer and Phoolwari arena for conferences. The venue offers facilities such as hoarding sites, travel agencies, insurance facilities, power and water supply, library and information centre. For movies, both in Hindi and English, there are four theatres with seating capacity ranging from 367 to 3,500 (in open air). There are more than 15 food and beverage outlets. But Sabarwal feels this is not enough as far as the conduct of conferences or even food services on offer. New Delhi and Mumbai "We are forced to conduct this year event annually in New Delhi. Ideally, we would like to go for two major cities New Delhi and Mumbai on an alternative basis. We may consider Bangalore but then there are no facilities available. The first edition of the SmartCard Expo was held in Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi as smart cards play a big role in Government applications. Then we opted for World Trade Centre in Mumbai to target the banking industry. We came back to Taj Mahal in Delhi in 2001. But after that we couldn't do it there and had to tie-up with ITPO," adds Sabarwal. For the five-day event, which included workshops on the first two days, the organisers opted for a stop-gap arrangement. "The conference halls were constructed years back and there is no flexibility. There is no room for increasing or decreasing the capacity as per the requirements. We had planned technical workshops for engineers and technicians on the first two days, followed by the conference on the next three days. "In fact, on the last day, we had to conduct two conferences simultaneously. For workshops, we need to arrange for 40 to 50 people while in the case of conferences, it varied from 250 to 300. But the conference halls over here in Hall 7 can only accommodate 200 people, so we had to go for a stop-gap arrangement in Phoolwari, 50 metres away from the exhibition arena." Sabarwal notes the facilities and infrastructure are not comparable with Europe or even Singapore and Hong Kong. "Internationally, everything is organised from the moment one enters the hall to registering, moving from one hall to another. Even basics such as courtesy of people and language is a problem at times here," he says. While halls 7A, B and C are L-shaped, E is isolated and is on the other side of foyer (meant for entrance, registration, Internet and cafeteria). Inconsistent standards "For instance, we noticed that a shuttle service is a big concern. Drivers of ITPO disappear for a while and are even indifferent. This can be attributed to complacency as ITPO is a state-run enterprise. But now we are allowed to go for private operators. We have organised with some hotels to provide shuttle services which are free in some cases. We weren't happy with ITPO shuttle service as its only available for fixed hours," says Sabarwal. For foreign visitors, Sabarwal points out the lack of a business centre (although the ITPO collateral says there is one) or options for decent quality restaurants. "If some of my guests don't want to eat oily food, I don't think they have much option. We need to incur at least US$2,200 for getting a quality food vendor," he says. The organiser worked out arrangements with various five-star hotels including The Indian Hotels Company's The Taj Palace and The Taj Mansingh, Le Méridien Hotels and Resorts, The Grand and The Park in central Delhi for business delegates. But even the location of these hotels caused visitor concerns, given the distance of four to five kilometres from the convention centre in heavy traffic or hot weather. Says an exhibitor, Abdul Hafeez Abdul Haleem, business development mangager, Malaysia Microelectronic Solutions, "We were looking for a hotel in the vicinity of the venue. But we couldn't find one." No airline tie-ups The organisers have no existing tie-ups with airlines. "We would like to tie-up with Indian private airlines like Jet Airways and Air Sahara as lot of visitors come from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (such airlines are only allowed to operate in SAARC nations) and even within India as we get over 6,000 visitors nationwide," says Sabarwal. Some of the visitors, he said, had plans to travel to Rajasthan and Goa. But the organisers did not arrange for post-tours given that tying up fool-proof arrangements with tour operators for large groups can prove logistically challenging. "We have tied-up with Cottage Industries Expo in the past, so that visitors can get to know about local handicrafts. This year we had a cultural programme and dinner on the second day of the event. We tied up with the local Panjabi Academy, which provided us with folk dancers," says Sabarwal. He adds further, "First, the itinerary was packed. Second, traveling in Delhi wasn't feasible. Even if I intended to take 40 to 50 people to the golf course, it would likely have been tiring and time-consuming." Some of the newly-laid Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus golf courses in Delhi Satellite Gurgaon are 20 to 25 kilometres away depending upon the hotel location in central Delhi. "We would prefer a world-class exhibition centre and if the exhibition and convention trade has to grow in this country, we need a proper platform to showcase," Sabarwal concludes.