Q8Ba7th Official Blog

Another year and another P2BK event, an annual event for small-medium entrepreneurs to participate and demonstrate their businesses. The exhibition this year brought in more varieties after it’s been more recognized, and the quality and booth expenses have increased to a good extent as well, showing how eager and enthusiastic contributors were. Their hard efforts however were again over shadowed by an overwhelming crowd of visitors trying to pass back and forth in a human traffic flow inside the tiny corridors between booths. The small area separating the booths made it barely possible for people to move, let alone standing for a moment to know what the booth is all about. If a guy stops, he would basically stop the whole lane behind him. We had to go with the current all the way through. Best thing you can hope to do is grab a brochure while you’re on the go.

Overheating was another problem still existing from last year. Since the room is designed for events, one would only think it’s designed to accommodate all it’s needs as well.

We understand the restriction on space area with the event targeting small-medium businesses, trying to keep it as affordable as possible, but the huge demand, costly booths, and amount of visitors can only justify the expansion. I’m sure sponsors would cover up big part of the event under such big demand, and the other thing is, if space is a problem, last thing one would need is a main stage eating up the remaining area.

Not only did it take a big amount of space, but was a big source of noise as well. My friend was trying to discuss something with an exhibitor but instead just took the business card since we couldn’t hear anything.

Any good impressions left on the way out were also wiped out when some guy at the door raised his hand over my friend’s chest, rudely telling him the exit is the other way. The fact that no door has a sign of Entrance nor Exit shows a bad side of organization, and not taking good care of the qualifications of the people they hire is another thing worse. Have it been someone other than my friend, who is a highly educated, wise and calm person, things would’ve taken a different turn.

In summary, I believe the event is a great idea, there is a big demand for it especially at the boost of online business in Kuwait, however the execution could be made a lot better to give the best outcome for both the visitor, and the exhibitor, as I can only picture my self as an exhibitor loosing all those candidate customers. The environment should be suitable to discuss the business opportunities, it’s not a carnival after all. Also, serious care should be taken with the hiring, what happened to us on the way out was really outrageous.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Kuwait International Fair Co., established in 1971, is the oldest and I think the only exhibition company holding it’s own grounds, occupying huge space land. Ever since then however, the development rate of this exhibition is really in the micro-level and can barely be seen.

As I was planning to go to the 33rd Books Exhibition, being it Friday I wanted to make sure the exhibition is open. Going to their amaturish site, the Working hours section had only the main office working hours. What about the exhibition working hours? They didn’t just forget it. They knew it’s different, and they even say it:

OK, so where do we find the exhibition opening hours? In the Events Calendar? The worst exhibition event calendar I’ve seen. All it has is the name, dates, and halls of the exhibition. After 33 years of arranging this exhibition, don’t you have any more information to give? Such information as:

• Working hours
• # Participants
• Categories of books visitor could find
• Map of the area and categories inside it
• Stats about previous exhibitions, is it growing larger, and at what rate. How many people usually attend the exhibition? Such things are more critical to you, KIF, and the exhibitors than the customer how could you miss it?
• Specific page per exhibition is definitely needed. Some detailed specific information about each exhibition. Give value, give credit, grab attention. Only few exhibitions have links with very shallow information
• No galleries and past events information

Wanna laugh more? See the Halls Availability. If you can travel back in time, hopefully you can find empty halls back in 2006 or 7.

Eventually, we had to call relatives to find out they don’t open Friday morning. Going in the afternoon, at little before 4 PM, there was literally no note about when are the opening hours at the door. I had to ask the snacks seller outside who told me it opens at 4:30. To our surprise, the doors opened at 4 PM and people started going in. Going inside, there were so many booths without sellers, so I could basically take all I want and leave. Their argument was, opening hours are supposedly 4:30 PM. Good, then don’t open before it, and deliver the message clearly so that people don’t line up early ahead. And even after 4:30 PM, there were still booths without sellers, and even worse, some new comer newspapers had reserved the booth but could not afford to have a person standing there, so all there is was an empty table, or sometimes this was lacking also. You could see pile of newspapers lying on the floor, and that was all of it.

Such things are not bad for the exhibitor only, but is bad for the overall image of the exhibition and would drive people away from it. Good control and penalty should be imposed on exhibitors. You take the place, you use it. Empty space looks really bad and gives bad impression about the overall quality, and usefulness of the expo.

The variety of books I guess were large, but I really did not have enough time to look around (thanks to my kid!), however the best part for me was the arts section showing some really talented Kuwaiti drawings.

I will try to post the few snapshots I took when I figure why my HTC won’t beam, sync, or fails to upload to any image site I visit.

FINAL NOTE: The Arabic Books Exhibition is supposed to be a face of Kuwait, and so is the Kuwait International Fair Co. Yet, it is the only exhibition where I don’t see any people trying to run stats, get reviews, push forward and improve. It’s basically the same year after year. Thanks only yo those exhibitors who can tolerate it, and bring new stuff to it. I was personally really disappointed and shocked when I saw it. I don’t usually go there very often, and before, I did not think of how bad those expos are, how the quality and focus are completely behind. This year however, I could not take it.

Really wish to see some serious revamp in this huge garbaged area. Supposed to be modernized, but it’s all dirty and unwisely used.

Popularity: 26% [?]