What am I jumping into?

Understanding your employment company is vital, as so is the core business & values.

The company I am in is a Professional Event Organizer namely PEO, a member of MACEOS Malaysia. We organize Malaysia International Jewellery Fair Spring Edition (MIJF SE) at Mandarin Oriental Hotel in March, Malaysia International Jewellery Fair (MIJF) at KL Convention Centre in July, & International Beauty Expo (IBE) in May at the heart of KL city annually, that is for domestic exhibitions. As for international exhibitions, we are the agent for Malaysia & Singapore in big jewellery shows as listed 

below:

Ø  Bangkok Gems & Jewellery Fair (Impact Exhibition & Convention Centre, Bangkok)

Ø  Jewellery Fair Korea (Atlantic Hall & Convention Hall, COEX; Seoul)

Ø  JCK Las Vegas (Sands Expo Convention Centre, Las Vegas)

Ø  International Jewellery London (Earls Court London, UK)

Ø  International Jewellery & Watch Show Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Centre, UAE)

Ø  Dubai International Jewellery Week (Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE)

For these 2 exhibitions, it has its very unique and different business nature. Due to the fact that I am totally new to the industry, exhibition line, jewellery industry and beauty industry; I had hard times to look for input, get information and knowledge, digest and absorb all the facts. These are things I never knew, never thought of before in the past 23 years of my life. I studied about jewellery market potential in Malaysia, get data, facts & figures from MATRADE statistical analysis on the import (RM 400.22 m) & export (RM 2.7 b) value; learned to understand different categories of jewelleries such as diamond and the 4Cs (determinant factor to decide value of stone), gold and the Ks (10-24k i.e.), pearl, jade, sapphire, fashion jewelleries, fine jewelleries, semi-precious jewelleries etc., also some key players of Malaysia industry like Poh Kong owned by YB Dato’ Eddie Choon, PYT Jewel & Time (Paternal relatives of Chun Family), Tomei (Maternal relatives of Chun Family), Habib, Lazo etc.

However, understanding an industry always require experience and that is what I am lacking of at this point of time. Put that all aside, there are more things for me to study and memorize:

•   Clients (who and what are their nature of business)
•   Competitors’ shows (where and when)
•   Freight forwarding service (with arm guard or not?)
•   ATA Carnet or Bank Guarantee?? (rules and regulations)
•   Customs procedures for exhibitors (processes and charges)
•   Cost, Insured Freight (CIF) value and duty import
•   On site contractor (Furniture & lighting etc.)
•   Strong room security
•   Hotel Booking and reservation
•   Booth size, price and package
•   A & P plan of the show
•   Program rundown for exhibition (OC by royal family, in-hall fashion show by Amber Chia and other models, Seminar by GIA (Geminology  Institute of America)

I had to admit this is pretty heavy for my brain to consume, not forgetting I have also to study on almost the same aspects for beauty industry. More sharing in upcoming post on:

*Telemarketing & Cold Calling (Winning script production), Handling Rejection (i.e. boomerang tactic), Sales process management (SPIN selling etc.), and Common sales mistakes.

Exhibition; the what & why?

I read too many articles, browsed through too many links to try to find an exact definition which can perfectly define the word “exhibition”, however; there are neither too many stories to follow nor too many perspective of looking at this. Nevertheless, all different definitions had finally come to a point ultimately and the magic word to explain this is “marketing tool”. 

Unlike any other marketing tools or channels, this is the best of all. Reason is simple, exhibition alone can achieve so many marketing objectives such as Mass reach of advertising, Targeting of direct mail, Persuasive power of face-to-face selling, Networking benefits of Internet, brand reputation building of PR & branding Creating a unique environment and atmosphere. 

For that I would say exhibition is no longer a single medium in this new era but a perfect mixture and best form of investment for corporate which is why Google Inc. has more than 5000 exhibitions annually, which makes at least 14 exhibitions every single day of the year. Do you know MNCs from overseas invest 60-70% of total corporate capital into exhibitions for marketing purpose where as Malaysia companies only invest less than 10% of total corporate capital into exhibitions for the same purpose?

*Refer to attachments below for a better picture

1st step into the working world

Looking back at my 1^st presence at the company, 1^st day or 1^st week doesn’t matter simply because I am a total fresh that just completed my tertiary education. Here is the equation or perception of what a fresh grad is like; fresh = no/ few past working experience, new to the working world, high self expectations on own value & capability which at most of the time do not meet with reality. 

We need time to re-adjust and get adapted to the world we thought we already known, this is what I think and I believe also representing voices of what majority fresh grad. However, we do realized when we moved forward into a new chapter of life heading towards different direction (leaving what we called the comfort zone; college/ university life), things changed. There is too much for learning and yet the education does not really prepare most of us for what is coming (except some faculties I would say).

Learning from scratch is not easy but praise god it had always been exciting and thrilling. Speaking of my job, I was in the marketing position in the event & exhibition line. My job description? Making sales calls (both cold & warm calling), doing presentation, liaise with clients, acquiring new client accounts and so on. I spent my 1^st 3 days doing study on my job, to understand my job better, to know what exhibition is and how is it differ than event. I used to think there is an equation between an event and exhibition but if fact there is nothing in common between the two. If I am about to say there is, there might just be the initial E. *chuckles* When it comes to nature of both, it is a total different scenario. In order for your eyes to feel less tiring and  more comfortable when reading this, I will share it in my next post.

Moving into Professionalism

We as human will go through different metamorphosis processes in life, whether do it come sooner or later. 2 years and a half since my last blog post and I am now moving into another milestone of life. From now on, I will share information and experience that I obtain from my job as a Marketing Executive in the Event and Exhibition line for Jewellery & Beauty Industry.