The World Smart Energy Week is expanding year after year and is of great renown in the world. This has become one of the best platforms for discussion as the organizer REED EXHIBITION JAPAN (REED) actively grasps the pulse of the market and understands the needs of customers.
Takeshi Tanaka, Director of REED, indicated that the number of manufacturers that participated in the World Smart Energy Week 2017 has increased from 1,400 last year to 1,570, including 570 from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Northern Europe, and many other regions. The number of attendee is expected to grow from 63,000 last year to 70,000, totaling 8,000 international visitors from 73 countries. This year’s exhibition may grow by 10% from last year. The number of international visitors is the highest among all other exhibitions in Japan, making World Smart Energy Week a truly global trade show.
A total of 248 international speakers were invited to a series of seminars during the World Smart Energy Week 2017, such as Japanese Electric Power Company, Fraunhofer ISE, Siemens, GE, and so on. The seminars are expected to attract 17,000 people to attend. Meanwhile, EnergyTrend noticed that the seminars this year cover a wide range of topics and match the changes in the industry. Yuki Omichi, Media Organizer of REED, said they put a lot of effort in organizing the seminars, winning positive feedback from attendee.
Excellent platform to promote industrial innovation
Tanaka indicated that he saw strong enthusiasm in the discussion and activities at the exhibition. Many exhibitors have praised about this and told REED that they are happy to meet so many manufacturers in just three days and get to see the latest trend and products.
EnergyTrend asked Tanaka what benefits would bring to the exhibitors that participate in the World Smart Energy Week. Tanaka said there are three main benefits. First, it’s the best opportunity to find new customers, take a good look at new products, and understand trends and new technologies as there are many manufacturers at the exhibition. Attendee can also strengthen their relationships with the existing clients through the exhibition to provide better service and understand demand. Although it’s only a three-day exhibition, the result of discussion can be very effective.
Second, exhibitors will have pressure to display their products, which can stimulate the research and development of new products and technologies, leading to industrial innovation and upgrade. Third of all, since manufacturers will launch their own new technologies, they can observe each other’s products. Manufacturers can actually observe the development of global manufacturers and at the same time stimulate the healthy competition among the manufacturers.
Looking ahead for 2018: Exhibition expansion continues
The biggest feature of this year is the next generation of thermal power exhibition. The exhibition was jointly organized by REED and Japanese Thermal Power Association (with 1,500 members). There were 180 exhibitors participating in the exhibition, focusing on low-carbon and environmentally friendly thermal power technologies. Considering that the Japanese government is more concerned about thermal power generation, they will expand the exhibition to 300 exhibitors in 2018.
Overall, REED plans to increase the number of exhibition booths from 1,570 to 1,850 in 2018. Aside from the thermal power expansion, FC EXPO will increase the number of exhibitors from 280 this year to 350. Wind EXPO will be increased to 300 booths.
Tanaka explained that the size planning of the World Smart Energy Week is closely related to the government policies. Hydrogen fuel technology is a major strength of Japan and the government is committed to promoting hydrogen into the society. Therefore, they will increase the scale of FC EXPO. Meanwhile, wind power is another item that the government actively promotes, and thus wind power exhibition will expand as well.
PV EXPO and PV SYSTEM exhibition will stop expanding in response to the government’s new policies toward PV generation. On the other hand, the content showed in the two PV exhibitions overlaps this year. REED will consider merging the two exhibitions or conduct more complete classification between the two PV exhibitions.
For other exhibitions, Energy Liberation EXPO will be suspended due to the completion of staging task. The content of Energy Liberation will be merged to SMART GRID EXPO, becoming a part of integrated power exhibition.
REED indicated that the World Smart Energy Week has once again taking over the Big Sight, meaning the existing space is inadequate. But compare to the expansion of the scale, REED will focus more on the quality of exhibition content, putting more effort into finding high-potential manufacturers and come up with content and seminars that matches the market changes to create a sound platform for business discussion.
(Photo Left: Yuki Omichi, Media organizer of World Smart Energy Week/Right: Takeshi Tanaka, show director of REED)