Malta Trade Fair: committed to being bigger and better

For the Malta Trade Fairs Corporation, it is "very much the eleventh hour" in terms of taking a decision on a venue for the corporation's fairs and other business activities, according to newly appointed general manager George F. Said.

Speaking at the Fair Grounds in Naxxar, Mr Said told The Sunday Times: "It is public knowledge that 2007 will be the expiry date for the lease. However, at this stage, three and a half years before, the Board... (has) come to a very delicate situation with negotiations.

"We are keeping all the cards on the table. We are looking at other sites, this site (and) it is a case of having all of them there and choosing the best one."

Mr Said expects a decision in the coming weeks - definitely before the end of the year. Whatever the decision, he strongly believes there is a future for trade fairs in Malta. "I wouldn't be here if there wasn't one. You will appreciate I would not make a move to this place if I knew that it was a sinking ship.

"There are challenges attached to it and this is what makes it fun, keeping the kettle boiling. But, definitely, there is a future. It has to be fostered and new areas, new avenues and new streams of income have to be outlined, pursued and generated."

Mr Said, 45, who hails from Victoria, is married to Doreen and they have a son, Matthew Peter. He has turned his back on 25 years in insurance when, earlier this year, he accepted the job of general manager at the corporation.

He was educated in Gozo up to upper secondary level and then read philosophy for three years. He worked with a number of local insurance companies, obtaining a professional qualification with the Chartered Insurance Institute in England (ACII).

Then, after 25 years in insurance, 14 of them at top management and director level, he thought it was time for a career change. Mr Said, who was recruited earlier this year, says he is loving it, adding: "It is giving me a breath of fresh air. The impetus fills my lungs now in this new role."

His brief is described as "wide-ranging". He attends board meetings (the corporation's 16-member board has representatives of the the GRTU, Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, the Malta Federation of Industry, Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, the Government, Exhibitors and Past Exhibitors) where policy is discussed.

He then has to implement those decisions. He has to manage a staff of 18, 11 in the office and seven on the exhibition floor, maintaining the fair grounds, seeing to the infrastructure and assisting in the setting up of the stands.

He oversees public relations and has to continue to build on what there is. "The brief would necessarily include piloting this ship along the few remaining years during which we will be in Naxxar.

Then, possibly, to the new venue where we will necessarily, whichever option is taken, have to be bigger and better; the weeding off of what could be termed as unnecessary and unresourceful, and the implementation of new ideas."

At a personal level, Mr Said is also out for job satisfaction. He was looking out for a different challenge: "When I find I am not enjoying what I do, then it's time to change. But I don't see that, definitely. Not now. In fact, I have such a good feeling that I do not repent moving out of insurance at all at this stage."

From the little I gathered in our brief conversation, there are plenty of new ideas being generated. The 2005 calendar of fairs now being finalised is to have new fairs. "We will consolidate the ones which have produced good results. We will necessarily have to go back to the drawing board vis-à-vis the ones who have produced a shortfall in expectations.

"We will not be afraid to change. Change is healthy. Going back to the drawing board means that we do not take anything as a fait accompli and it keeps all we produce vibrant and healthy."

The corporation is considering the acquisition of a fully integrated event management and organisation software system. "This will bring us up to scratch with worldwide standards where you can actually manage what is going on from all facets, be it bookings, square metreage, repeat customers, database...

"We have already zoomed down on a couple of systems. We will actually be pinpointing the one which we will be taking up shortly. But this will take us a quality step forward in what we will actually give to our exhibitors and prospective exhibitors."

Mr Said is determined that all fairs and events organised by the corporation will be of a high quality. "It is not just a matter of organising trade shows. We have to be a more effective market place. We need to be the catalyst for wider business opportunities for the people who want to invest their money in taking part in fairs."

He has set himself two targets in this area: "to make... fairs more value added (and) greater exhibitor orientation". The corporation, he believes, also has an educational role. "We will be attaching seminars for the public and for the exhibitors in particular, where we will be inviting over specialised people in specialist areas to assist and deliver educative lectures."

In terms of exhibitor orientation, he said the corporation needs "to emphasise that exhibitors are our greatest client. It is no use having thousands queuing out there wanting to have fairs (when) you have no one to exhibit in your fairs. This is the message I want personally to get through to the exhibitors who come and put there money here.

"We want to listen to you. Twenty-five years in insurance have taught me that you need to bend over backwards, within parameters, to service your client (and) to give them what they want - of course within parameters.

"But you have to be flexible, dynamic, (and) to involve them. You have to listen to them, involve them even at the embryonic stage of a fair and this is exactly what we will be doing for 2005.

"We will see that the dates are suitable for a sector, what they would like to see, what they would not like to see, and this is where our forte will lie. We will have these people as our very strong allies and, if you have these people, then you are going to have fairs and you are going to meet the demand of the people who normally come to our fairs."

Although the common reaction for the businessman in hard times is to cross out participation in a fair, Mr Said believes this is the wrong approach: "Dropping out of a fair is not the right decision. Marketing to promote a buying decision does not come any more direct than at a fair. You have the one-to-one approach. You have such a wide forum. You have such a wide variety of people who come over there.

"I think participation in a fair should be the last one to be dropped out. This is a sort of message that we need to get through to the people, even possibly through educative advertising campaigns."

Looking forward to EU membership, he said the corporation sees the EU as "an opportunity rather than as a threat; a potential market. Indeed this is where we need to change our outlook. We cannot remain insular.

"Possibly, we need to go back to the Phoenicians who were the first people who created fairs in the second half of the ninth century BC. Possibly, we have to take on their motto and act as the centre.

"Of course, given our geographic location and being within Europe, we can capitalise on that, possibly to the north African market. But the outlook definitely must be outwards rather than inwards."

This will be achieved through the corporation's Website (www.tradefairsmalta.com - currently undergoing a total revamp), its calendar of fairs and its new integrated event management and organisation software which Mr Said is confident will give the corporation the facility to cater for worldwide traffic.