From Paul Woodward in Hong Kong: UFI members and other exhibition industry leaders around the world will be receiving an e-mail from Paris today giving them a final reminder of next week’s UFI Open Seminar in Asia. Record numbers of delegates are already signed up for the event which will attract participants from 25 countries and regions and is hosted at the Taipei International Convention Center by TAITRA.

 The industry will gather in Taipei amidst encouraging news for Asia’s economies. As in most parts of the world, the first part of 2009 was pretty gloomy for Asia. A year later, though, the BBC is reporting  that “Taiwan’s economy grew at an annualised rate of 18% in the last three months of 2009, driven by demand for hi-tech products from mainland China”. The same report goes on to note that Thailand – the destination of the 2011 UFI Open Seminar in Asia (24 – 25 Feb 2011) – also saw its economy grow “sharply in the final quarter of 2009, expanding at an annual rate of 5.8%”.

 When the seminar was being planned in the middle of last year, we were optimistic that recession would no longer be the main topic of discussion. So, the focus will be on “Innovation for Business Growth”: speakers from around the world will be talking about new ways of thinking which should allow businesses to restart their building. These will include Kenny Lo from Hong Kong’s Vertical Expo who has brought exhibition subjects to the region previously considered taboo in Asia. Peter MacGillivray from SEMA will talk about how that long-established US show continues to reinvent itself to remain relevant to its audience. TAITRA’s Walter Yeh will talk about the opportunities opening up for innovative companies as business ties between Taiwan and mainland China have improved so dramatically in recent years.

 There’s still time to register and join the more than 220 people from all over the world who will be in Taipei with UFI next week. And, as with all UFI’s Open Seminars, you don’t even have to be a member for this one! 

 For those of you who can’t make it, follow us on this blog and on Twitter at www.ufi.org/twitter andor via the #ufitaipei hashtag.