If you think you’ve explored every possible market for satellite services and products, think again. One of the industry’s best kept secrets is a major trade show that attracts almost three times the number of attendees as the annual Satellite show in Washington, D.C. The Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Eurasia Expo and Conference held annually in Novermber in Istanbul, Turkey attracted 14,000 attendees in 2007 and 511 exhibiting companies from 44 countries. The exhibition and conference’s main draw is the emerging market of over 500 million people in the Eurasian region where Turkey is a major center.
If you think you’ve explored every possible market for satellite services and products, think again. One of the industry’s best kept secrets is a major trade show that attracts almost three times the number of attendees as the annual Satellite show in Washington, D.C. The Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Eurasia Expo and Conference held annually in Novermber in Istanbul, Turkey attracted 14,000 attendees in 2007 and 511 exhibiting companies from 44 countries. The exhibition and conference’s main draw is the emerging market of over 500 million people in the Eurasian region where Turkey is a major center.
Turkey’s dynamic growth requires foreign investment and the market is still wide open for newcomers, so this is the best time to get into this emerging market," said Dennis Smith, Managing Director of Hanover Fairs-Turkey, the show’s organizer. HF-Turkey is a subsidiary of the Germany-based event organizing company CeBit, which organizes the lagest exhibition in the world in Hanover, Germany of the same name. In addition to BCS Eurasia, HF-Turkey also organizes and IT event, CeBit Bilisim, also in Istanbul every October that attracts a staggering over 140,000 attendees.
I was one of those pleasantly surprised to see first-hand this bustling fair and find very few particpants from Europe and almost none from North America. What’s even more surpising is this show has going on for the past 11 years. This year, for the very first time, they held an international conference component to the show with featured speakers that included Ferdinand Kayser, CEO of SES Astra and David Rehr, President of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) from the US.
When asked during a session of the Internatinal Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Conference on why the NAB’s President chose to go to Turkey to speak on the Digital TV transition in the US, Rehr said that there are many exciting developments in the Turkish and Eurasian market that the US can learn from. He added that the Eurasian market is growing and there are many opportunities for North American companies in the region.
While participation from European satellite companies in the show is relatively good, Smith laments that participation from North American companies can be improved. Of the 511 exhibiting companies only 11 are from North America. Smith would like to see that number change. Well, the organizers may have jus the right formula to attract more participants from other regions to this show. In 2009, the wyll co-locate the Cebit Bilisim IT show and the Broadcast, Cable and Stellite Eurasia show to be held on Ocotber 7-11 2009 with an expected turnout of over 150,000 trade visitors. Now that’s an incentive to come to Istanbul inext year.
For more information on the Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Eurasia show go to http://www.cebit-bcs.com/en/index.html
