PART THREE: PRESENTATION OF PROJECTS

EVALUATION OF NEPAL INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR

2012 PERFORMANCE
3.1. INTRODUCTION
3.1.1. INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT:
As per the requirement of Kathmandu University (KU), we were supposed to undergo
internship in any organisation for eight week for the partial fulfilment of Bachelors of
Business Information System (BBIS) program. For the internship, we selected FNCCI.
We worked in the Branding and Income Generation Committee (trade fair section) of
FNCCI as an intern. During this period we supported in the pre event activities and
promotion of trade fair. We were not assigned any project during the internship but this
project is an initiative to analyse the trade fair performance. This project is based on our
experience while working as an intern in FNCCI and our analysis and research on our
topic of study. Being a BBIS student, we got an opportunity to learn about the trade fairs
that are organized n Nepal.
Trade shows are fast becoming an integral part of the promotion mix in the
marketing strategy of most of the companies. They are the very good communicating
platform and enable a direct connection with the customers as well as trade channels.
Trade shows pertaining to specific industries, products and services are being organised
regularly on regional, national and international levels and are being supported by
specialised agencies, association, authorities and government bodies. The popularity of
trade shows is evident from the fact that huge spends are allocated towards participation
by the exhibitors and footfalls recorded in most of the trade shows a increasing by the day,
clearly reflecting the enthusiasm and interest of visitors towards such events. There are
retail outlets, advertising, channel partners, distribution to increase the sales and visibility
of the products and services, but they are definitely not a substitute for trade shows, which
perform an entirely different function and contribute immensely towards communicating
and connecting the offering to the respective target audiences-consumers as well as trade.
In order to survive in this competitive environment, organizers need to guarantee a trade
shows potential to attract a large number of exhibitors and visitors (Cox, Sequeira, &
Bock, 1986). In order to accomplish this objective, the organizers need to obtain more

information from the attendes through post-show evaluation in order to evaluate their own
performance and guide their future improvement endeavours. Thus, there is a great
demand for studies conducted from the organizers perspective to shed some light on how
to provide a better platform and attract more exhibitors and visitors to trade show.
We have selected Evaluation of Nepal International Trade Fair 2012
Performance as topic for our study to know whether the Nepal International Trade Fair
2012 Successful or not. We have analysed what are the differentiated activities that leads
to the success of the trade fairs and how it should be carried out. In general, there is a
tendency of giving attention only to the pre trade fairs and on fairs and the organisers tend
to relax after the trade fair comes to an end. We have also explored the importance of
activities to be carried out on post trade fair for the success of the trade fair. The proper
plan for arranged booth, the decorations, clean paths, security, promotion, sponsors,
supporting staffs, power, water, food and other side entertainment shows also help to the
success of the trade fairs. The exhibitors (company/firms/industry/association/agencies
who exhibit their product or services in the trade fair) are always difficult to satisfy but the
attention on their demands and the extent to which the organisers can actually get close to
their satisfaction plays a great deal on the success of trade fairs.
Targets that are set should not be close to achievement. The tough is the
targets; the more great is the performance. So, the analysis of NITF targets and the
element of achievement on that target are covered in our topic of study and how this
achievement have or havent helped in the success of trade fairs. Trade fair is not an
on spot trading place. It is a platform for the suppliers and vendors to know about
the products on the host country and to supply those products to their home country.
Information exchange at trade shows helps exhibitors choose better trading partners,
reduce legal and contracting costs, and decide which parts of the business can be
outsourced or kept in-house (Hansen, 1999). We have also determined the effects of
NITF on the trade part of the Nepal. The evaluation of the performance of exhibitors
during the trade show and try to shed some light on what the exhibitor has spent on
and gained from the trade show and whether or not it is worthwhile to attend the
same show next year.

3.1.2. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT:

Objective 1: To determine whether trade show has specific targets and whether the targets
have been met.
Objective 2: To recognise the differentiated activities that are likely to influence trade fair
performance in different ways.
Objective 3: To determine the enhancement of Nepalese business through the trade fairs.

3.1.3. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT:

Scope:
The scope of this project is to evaluate the performance of the Nepal International Trade
Fair 2012. It provides the company and its key associates with the vital information that
they need for making key strategic and tactical decisions prior to, at and after the trade
show in which they are involved. The evaluation determines how successful the event was
(or wasnt) and why. So this analysis of the Nepal International Trade Fair 2012 on the
basis of the performance can provide the company with the benchmark which can lead to
the continued improvement, effectiveness and success in their upcoming trade shows.
This study can also brief about the exhibitors satisfaction and the factors that make them
satisfied or unsatisfied. This project also helps us to analyse the scope of Nepalese product
in international market and improve our product to compete with the international
standard.

Limitations:

We, as a student of Bachelor of Business Information System (BBIS) lack

the sufficient knowledge and information to make a complete report on this
project.

Due to the time factor, this report doesnt include all aspects of our topic
of study.

Due to the secrecy of some information in the organisation that is not to

be disclosed in the report, we couldnt make a comprehensive report.

We did not find any books or literature in the library about the Nepalese
trade fair, so our topic of study is limited.

3.2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

3.2.1. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:
The literature review can be presented on the basis of different dimensions.
Dimension of service quality
Kweon (2003) has concluded that the following six discriminators were factors that
affect the service quality of exhibitions: host and public relations, internal facilities
of the exhibition hall, security and cleanliness, parking and convenient facilities,
guidance and attendance cost, and surroundings and transportation convenience.
A well-organized trade fair can act as a boon for the entire industry, fulfilling all the
dreams and aspirations of exhibitors and visitors. To achieve this result, an organizer
should make sure the planning is done according to the genre of trade fair. A trade
fair should be a complete visual transformation of the industry that it represents.
Despite the visual detail, a trade fair can still weaken in achieving its objective if the
facilities provided are trashy. All essentials like power, water, and food should be
conveniently made available to the participants. The stalls allotted to the exhibitors
should be large enough to accommodate the products and equipment and small
enough to leave enough space for the visitors to walk freely. The banners for
advertisements and directional markers should be placed at locations which are easy
to spot. In case the trade show involves live demonstrations and business
presentation, the organizers should make provision for conference and exhibition
halls dedicated to these purposes. A hasty organization with lack of quality can lower
the reputation in front of the entire industry and future clients; hence these
responsibilities need to be followed diligently. So the service quality provide by the
organisers on the trade fair determines the success of the trade fairs.

Dimension of trade fair target

Trade shows are advantageous for developing and strengthening relationships
through strategic networking in order to increase potential sales opportunities
(Tanner, Chonko, and Ponzurick, 2001)
The target of the trade shows is not only its monetary profits. The immediate sales of
the product in the trade shows are not only its aim. The main target is to analyse
whether the trade show has provide the country with the trade expansion. The
development in the trade can be in terms of national or international. The products of
Nepal can be highlighted and promoted in Nepal itself causing the sales of that
product to grow. In an International level, the products of Nepal need to be
recognised by the international buyer and then sell in their country. The growing
demands of the products then can increase the sales of the Nepalese product and
provide a room for the further development. The event mainly focuses to promote 19
export potential products identified by Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NITS)
launched by Government of Nepal. The NTIS stresses the need to develop Nepals
trade competitiveness and trade diversification. The strategy points out on the need
for better coordination among different state and non-state agencies, it also points
out the challenge that Nepal has not been able to reap the possible benefits of the
world trade system. Therefore, with collaboration with Government of Nepal,
FNCCI wishes to enhance the exports of the Nepalese exportable products through
Nepal International Trade Fair 2012 by displaying the product or services in the
stalls and creating the platform for B2B meeting or match making among the
exhibitors and among exhibitors and potential buyers.
Dimension of exhibitors satisfaction:
Companies participate in trade fairs with the expectation of some benefit (Sashi &
Perretty 1992). Different company have different expectations of the benefits of
trade show participation- some are interested in generating leads, others are
interested in promoting their corporate image and still others have objectives that
involve causal contact with current customers, competitive considerations and so
forth. The exhibitors are the customers of the organisers so the customers must be

satisfied. The determinants of satisfaction of exhibitors in trade fair involves the

right booth for their product, the facilities provided in the booth, the provision made
to attract more visitors, the quality of the visitors, the persons available on their
booth for help and the extend to which the organisers were helpful to solve their
problems. There are motives and expectation of the exhibitors to choose the certain
trade shows and the extent to which the exhibitors satisfaction are met determines
the success of the fairs.
Dimension of post fair activities:
In practice, the post-show evaluation conducted by organizers often covers two main
domains. The first one is marketing-related questions. For example, the number of
exhibitors and visitors which attended the trade show; the rank and purchase power
of attendees, and the demographic information of the attendees. The second domain
would be performance-related questions. This section intends to examine how well
the organizers have served the visitors and exhibitors. Normally, this section would
try to gather the perceptions of the visitors and exhibitors on the service and
environment the organizers provided before, during an after the show. Traditionally,
the post-show evaluation conducted by organizers mainly focused on the first
domain. The results of the evaluation only served the marketing purpose. The second
domain, which is performance-related, was often ignored or not subject to further
examination to provide guidance for future management.

3.3. METHODOLOGY
Methodology is the set of methods and principles that are used when studying particular
subjects or doing particular kind of work. This section focuses on the research
methodology and how it was applied to variables covered in above section.
3.3.1. Method of data collection
Data collection is an essential method for the study of the project. We have used both
primary and secondary method of data collection.
Primary Data:

Primary data, which we have generated using the following methods may be qualitative in
nature or quantitative. These data are collected for the analysis of our topic of study.
Among many methods of collecting primary data, we used the following:
a.

Observation:

As we were the part of NITF 2012, we could observe the visitors, exhibitors and
organisers actions and reactions. This methods doesnt provide us with the quantative
data but helped us to analyse our topic of study.
b.

Questionnaire:

We generated three typed of questionnaire which was addressed for visitors, exhibitors
and organisers. These questionnaires were distributed to the visitors and exhibitors on
the event for the analysis of differentiated activities on the fair. And the questionnaires
for the organisers were distributed after the event for the evaluation of how the event
went.
c.

Interviews:

We generated a few questionnaires for interviewing the organisers about how the fair
went and were they satisfied with the results. These data helped us to know their targets
and expectation for the fair and to find out if they have been fulfilled.

Secondary data:

Secondary data is the data that has already been collected by someone else for a deferent
purpose. Among the secondary data, we used the following
a.

Paper based sources:

Among the paper based sources we used FNCCI directories, reports of other trade fair,
records of FNCCI, newspaper articles posted about NITF2012, brochures of NITF 2012
which helped us to collect the data to analyse our findings.
b.

Electronic sources:

Among the electronic sources, we used google.com, website of FNCCI, online database
of FNCCI to collect the data to evaluate our findings.
Table 1: Strength and weakness of each kind of evidence collected.
Source
Documentation

Interviews

Strength
Stable

Weakness
Irretrievability

Exact

Biased selectivity

Board coverage

Reporting bias

Unobtrusive

Access may be blocked

Targeted

Bias

due

to

poorly

constructed questionnaire

Observation

Insightful-perceived

Response bias

casual inferences
Reality

Incurable due to poor recall.

Time-consuming

Contextual

Selectivity

Reflexivity

Cost(Travelling)
Source: (Yin, 2003)

3.3.2. Sampling method and size:

We use convenience sampling techniques in the survey. This method is quick and easy.
The benefits of this sampling method included the ability to obtain a large number of
completed questionnaires quickly, conveniently and economically (Zikmund, 2003). It is
difficult to survey every exhibitors and visitors on the fair so we find this sampling
method appropriate.
The size of the population that are surveyed is estimated around 320 units of exhibitors
and 5000 units of visitors.
3.3.3. Data analysis procedure:
The questionnaire response were presented using general descriptive statistics in the form
of frequency distribution and also appropriate visual summaries such as histogram, bar
charts, and pie charts. We have used Ms Word for the typing of the whole report.

3.4. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT

3.4.1. ANALYTICAL PRESENTATION OF PROJECT

Figure 4: Profile Of Visitors

The visitors to the trade fair were from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Japan,
Pakistan, Bhutan, Germany. Among them, the Nepalese vsitors were maximum and
beside Nepal, there were visitors from neighbouring country India. So this figure shows
that there wasnot large international visitors as expected by the organisers. In this
competitive environment, the organizers need to guarantee the trade shows potential to
attract a large numbr of visitors and to accomplish this objective, they need to discover
the criteria underlying the decisions of potential visitors. From the exhibitors
perspective, moreover, it is crucial to understand to motivations behind the visitors
decisions to attend TSs, since exhibitor-visitor interaction is the key factor in
determining TS success.

Figure 5: Exhibit Profile

One of the questions was focused on the exhibitors products. The figure above shows the
different products displayed in this trade show by the exhibitors. The result shows that
handicraft products acquire more spaces in the fair. The agro product holds the second
highest place in the trade fair. The target of this trade show was to exhibit the Nepalese
product. TS are perceived as a means of acquiring knowledge and preparing for the future.
So the products that are exhibited know their position in the market and can prepare
according to the response they receive in the trade fair.
Figure 6: Activities to be done on trade fair
The survey also revealed the importance of pre fair activities, on fair activities and post
fair activities. For trade show activities to be effective, an exhibitor must formulate the
approach to be taken and then implement it at the different stages of the trade show event.
The trade show literature has been focusing on three main stages of trade show
participation from the perspective of an exhibitor:
1. Pre- event activities: identifying and formulating objectives and planning
2. Event activities: behaviour and quality of booth personnel, identifying buyer
name and position.

3. Post-event activities: visiting or calling existing and potential customers identified

at the show, assessing trade show performance.
The organisers naturally tend to donate more time for the pre fair activities as they have to
fully prepare the whole settings. After the preparations are over and the TSs get started
there is a little work to be done on the exhibitors' side. While its quite natural to want to
immediately close the book soon after a major trade show ends, it is also somewhat
natural for trade show exhibit professionals to want to learn and improve things by
evaluating and fixing the problems they might have experienced during the show.
Therefore, post fair activities also should be given much time.

The above figure shows the level of satisfaction of the visitors and the exhibitors.
This survey finds out that the visitors and exhibitors werent highly satisfied as expected.
The exhibitors couldnt meet their expectation with the management of the exhibitors, the
number of visitors.

3.4.2. FINDINGS:
Organising a trade shows is an achievement in itself. The main stakeholder in the
exhibition is EO, exhibitors, visitors or trade buyers, exhibition centres, and decoration
contractors. The other services providers are freight forwarders, transport and travel
agents, hotels, conference organisers, public relations, and promotion agents. Lui (2006)
showed the relationship between EO and other stakeholders below. The main objective of
an exhibition is to create business between the exhibitors and trade visitors or trade
buyers. Lius (2006) figure showed the strong relationships between EO and exhibitors,
visitors,
And exhibition centres. Likewise, between exhibitors, decoration contractors and other
stakeholders. Outside the main core, there are the government supporting and regulating
authorities, public service, middlemen and agents. Public service includes customs,
inspection and regulatory authorities, commerce and industry, police and security, fire
department and urban administration.

Government

Public Services
Exhibitio
n
Organizer
s
Exhibitor
s

Customs
Buyers or
Visitors

Other
Stakeholders

Decoratio
n
Contractor

Exhibition
Center

Inspection
and
Regulatory
Authorities
Commerce
and
Industry
Police and
Security
Fire Dept.

Middlemen and
Agencies

Main Objective
Strong Relationship
Relationship
Some Relationship

Urban
Administrat
ion

Figure 8: Stakeholders in the exhibition

Translated from (Lui, 2006)
Kerin and Cron (1987) were some of the pioneers in EP study. They identified two
functions- sales and non-sales in the EP, as presented in the below figure. They grouped
three dimensions:
1)

Industry or competitive forces

2)

Choice of vertical/ horizontal exhibition, international / national /

regional exhibition and the topics of exhibitions.

3)

Internal factors of the exhibitor(company)

Industrial
Influences:
Number of total
competitor
Number of new
competitor
Stages of industrial Life
Cycle

Trade show Strategies:

Number of National
shows
Number of regional
shows4
Emphasis on Horizontal
shows
Emphasis on vertical
shows
Existence of trade show
Objectives
Number of products
exhibited.

Company Influences:
Annual sales volume
Number of customers
Customer
concentration
Technical complexity
of products

Show performance
Selling function
Non-selling function

Figure 9: Variables affecting trade show performance

(Source: Kerin & Cron, 1987)

Environmental Influences:
Competitors in the market.
Competitors in the trade show.
New competitors in the trade show.
Present channel members at the show.
New channel members in the show.
Number of existing supplier at the
show.
Number of new supplier at the show.
Number of visitors.
Quality of visitors.
Life cycle stage

Company Influences:
Annual sales
Number of customer
Customer concentration
Product complexity
Trade show budget
Trade show cumulative experience
The value of continuation to the
Exhibiting company
The geographical emphasis of the
company
Width and length of available
product line.

Trade show selection

Number of international
shows
Number of national shows
Number of regional shows
Empasis on show types
Feedback
loop

Show performance
Sales
Intelligence
Supplier contacts
Phychological Objective

Booth management
Width and length of exhibited
lines
Show budget
Availability of new products
Booth quality
Booth management
Show objective

Figure 10: A general model of trade show performance

Source : (Shoham, 1999)

The studies of exhibition performance from visitors perspective focused on their buying
motives and behaviour during the show. This knowledge has been used mainly to improve
exhibitor selling strategies. Visitors to a trade show are different then visitors to a
consumer show. Trade show visitors are not that much concerned about spot purchases of
promotional and discount goods. Their major motivations behind exhibition participation
are to gather information about market access, new products, potential suppliers and
alternative purchases.
The studies of exhibition performance from the exhibitors perspective focused on selling
goods, including those on exposure to exhibits, booth contact, overall sales, awareness of
new products, tactical and strategies recommendation to improve the use of exhibitions
during new product introductions and the motivation behind exhibition participation.
Trade show performance should include a second dimension of non-selling objective.
Selling must satisfy the information-seeking and procurement needs of attendees for both
distributors and the customers. Many of the above EP studies have little in common with
the EOP, since the former focuses on individual exhibitor performance, while and EO is
concerned with collective exhibitor performance. For example, the location and the size of
the booth for an exhibitor is a major concern for the success in exhibition participation,
but an EO wouldnt be concerned about individual exhibitor location in the exhibition.
The EO cares for the location of the whole exhibition and the overall visitor promotion
and attraction.
Table 2: Activities to be done on trade fair.
Pre fair
Communication
Staff Training
Visitor Attraction
Exhibit services

On fair
Exhibits Events
Visitor contact procedure
Visitor Tracking
Visitor Interest
Buying Information

Post-Fair
Prompt follow-up
Delayed follow-up
Participation cost

While its quite natural to want to immediately close the book soon after a major trade
show ends, it is also somewhat natural for trade show exhibitors and organisers to want to
learn and improve things by evaluating and fixing the problems they might have
experience during the show. Experienced organisers who believe in and practice the time
tested, do it, fix it, do it again until you get it right attitude towards organising will
eventually iron out the various wrinkles that challenge the success of their trade show

program. When accomplished, and those nagging little problems are solved for good, they
can then afford themselves additional time to explore and experiment with more clever
organising innovation.
The details of the post trade show exhibition evaluation should include virtually all aspect
of the trade show exhibition presentation including but not limited to: product presentation
effectiveness, level of booth duty professionalism, efficient exhibit communication, level
of technical and management support provided, hotel and transportation logistics, level of
customer care, sales lead management and distribution, literature support operation, press
relations, pre-event meeting details, and the exhibitors overall operation from opening to
closing. One of the best ways to gather information is on the last day of the show to hand
out a post-event evaluation form to all visitors and exhibitors for their opinion, concerns
and suggestions. This data should then be quickly summarised, evaluated and distributed
within a week or so to management with the added recommendation to make the necessary
improvement before the next show. All these variables and study helps to know the
performance of the trade show or measure the performance for the next show.

3.5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

3.5.1. CONCLUSION:
This study offers the broad aspect of the criteria that affects the performance of the
TS. So, NITF 2012 performance moreover a satisfactory one on the basis of the different
variables we presented above. The target of the organisers hasnot been met as the number
of visitors could only reach 200000 from which only 20000 were international visitors and
the business visitor werent up to mark as well. They werent able to bring exhibitors from
all over the world. The exhibitors were only from Pakistan, India, China, Bangladesh,
Korea, and Bhutan. The exhibitors from other country were not able to participate due to
ATA carnet system. It is an international customs document issued for permitting
temporary import of equipment or merchandise without the payment of duties and taxes
upon arrival. According to FNCCI, 20 Korean companies and 17 companies from
Bangladesh failed to participate in the trade fair due to complications at the custom. To
term a trade fair as international, it would not be justifiable to bring only the neighbouring
countries. The main objective and the motto for conducting NITF is to support the small

companies of Nepal to be come upfront in the international trade as well. The organisers
intended to increase the exports of Nepal to foreign country. They were able to contact
only two importers from Japan and Korea to import the agricultural product of Nepal.
Post trade activities is as important as the pre fair activities, organisers of NITF also
missed or ignored various part of the trade show activities such as appreciation for the
sponsors or the supporters in the completion of the trade fair, collecting marketing related
information, performance related information. These post trade activities and devaluation
will provide the exhibitor with additional time to explore and experiment with more clever
exhibit and product presentation innovations in the next trade shows. This study has come
up with the account that the NITF was an encouraging trade fair. As it was a first of its
kind, it could not concentrate on the various aspect of the fair. The high expectation of the
exhibitors, organisers and the visitors are seen to have unmet. The flaws in this fair can be
analysed and corrected to make sure that the NITF will set a benchmark next time.
3.5.2. RECOMMENDATION;

The Pre-event planning affects the performance of the trade shows. Preevent planning will identify the right customer for exhibiting the products or
services, target market, budgeting the event, other factors associated with the event
and also the attractiveness of the booth and the booth location for each of the
exhibitor to satisfy their expectation. Thus, Pre-event planning should be
conducted with the participation of all level of stakeholders to make the event
successful.

Advertisement plays vital role to promotion of event so that the number of

visitors can know about the event and can come to visit. There are various medium
of advertising. As an organizer, all the medium of advertising should be used to
promote the event not only during the event but also before the event so that the
participating companies should know to exhibit.

Decoration of event venue also affects its overall performance. Proper

management of banners and buntings with proper decoration should be done.
Consistence in the size of the banners and buntings should be maintained to look
attractive.

The well equipped exhibition hall is lacking in Nepal. The private sector
should construct the international level exhibition hall which must be fully
equipped whether by the coordination with GoN or by themselves.

The lack of effective event Management Company also affects the

performance of the event. The existing management companies lack equipment for
constructing additional hangers, manpower, technicians, skills and coordination.
Nepal lacks the competent event management company with full services thus,
need to hire from neighbouring country.