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.