Keeping in view the travelling restrictions and social distancing protocols The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CPIT) arranged a virtual expo for HVACR industry from 29th June to 2nd July 2020. The virtual expo was arranged on zoom. This virtual expo provided a platform to bring together the businesses and clients and to arrange Business-to-business (B2B) meetings to further the business activities.
This virtual expo is a very innovative concept having the potential to become the future of expos and exhibitions in the world. All the participants of the expo set up their “stalls” on the screen where their products were on display. Some of the participants opted to play their company’s introductory video on loop on their screens for which they have been provided 8 seconds of time free of cost. The people attending the virtual expo were able to watch all the “stalls” set up by the exhibitors on their screen and interact with them one on one.
A moderator was appointed to facilitate all the participants. Miss Amy, the moderator for the expo, while talking to Engineering Post said that they received a very positive response for the expo with more than 100 companies participating. “Due to the travel restrictions the businesses and consumers were unable to connect with each other because all the exhibition and Expos had been canceled due to COVID-19. Quality Zhejiang Virtual Expo is trying to bridge that gap and facilitate everyone in the process by arranging B2B meetings and giving the business a chance to display their services and products for the clients.”
After joining the Expo using the meeting ID the visitors were able to scroll through all the companies and if any help was required in connecting to the exhibitors they could ask the moderator to connect them to the relevant exhibitor. The moderator was able to set up small private groups for B2B meeting in which both the visitor and exhibitor from relevant field were added so they could have a private conversation separate from the rest of the exhibition.
