The 10th edition of the SMEs International Expo is set to be held at the end of next month under a virtual format, the organisers have said.
This was disclosed by SME International Expo Managing Director, Delight Makotose in an interview with Business Events following the event’s theme launch which was held virtually last week. Makotose highlighted that the event is set to run from 28 to 31 October 2020 under the theme, “Sustainable production for economic growth during and post-COVID19.”
Makotose indicated that the pandemic presented a real challenge but his team had to find ways of ensuring the show would go ahead.
“People have to be very innovative to survive like what we have done. We have got a big community of business following us. Should we have left them in the cold like that? No. We had to re-image ourselves and come up with some innovative way of doing it (holding the exhibition). This is our tenth anniversary year so the expo has going on but we will do it differently.
The SMEs International Expo boss explained that the event would go on virtually with exhibitors showcasing their products and services from their business premises.
“We had to come up with a virtual exhibition where people will be exhibiting from their locations to suit what they have then we will broadcast (their exhibits). For our conference, this will be a virtual conference held over two days just like we did with the theme launch. One advantage of virtual meetings is that we can get the whole world joining in. During the launch, we got people from all over joining in, something we could not achieve with a face to face event.
“We partnered with TelOne, who will provide Wi-Fi connectivity, who will be our technological sponsor. The conference that we are going to have will be highly interactive,” he said.
Makotose indicated that a number of exhibitors, both SMEs and large companies had shown interest in the event.
“We have a number of companies which have shown interest in participating especially large corporates as well as SMEs,” Makotose said.
He bemoaned lack of affordable and reliable internet access to enable as many people as possible to participate in the exhibition.