Five and Kicking

JCB UAE had a reasonably impressive show during Big 5 PMV
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Two of the industry’s biggest shows took place in November, although there was only one place to be if you wanted to hear big contract news. And that wasn’t Big 5 PMV.

The fact that the dates of Big 5 PMV and the biennial Bauma China always clash in never really seemed to matter before. This year was different.

Putting them up against each other this time around only served to remind everyone how far back the Middle East has fallen relative to China in the attentions of the global companies.

The word to stress is relative. Big 5 was not the gut wrenchingly uncertain fright fest that last year’s was: when Dubai had to be bailed out as its financial system collapsed.

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In fact as the on-going construction in the near-by financial district attested, and as Sheikh Mohammed stated on the first day, this was an opportunity for Dubai, the UAE and the rest of the GCC, to re-affirm its mission statement of being one of the most exciting places for the construction industry to be.

A shame then that it was marginalised by many of major players who chose to focus their attention on Bauma China instead.

From a neutral’s point of view the reasoning is understandable and it’s not just the fact that in terms of size and visitor numbers Bauma China is three times bigger than its Middle East peer.

China is the single most dominant construction market; its most buoyant and dynamic base for manufacturing and has become the number one destination for big names looking to expand their global manufacturing footprint. 150,000 people attended Bauma China and many of them headed to the giant machinery on show.

Big 5, with its 20,000 (11,000 pre-registered for the PMV section) visitors sounds small in comparison. At times during the event felt like it too.

It didn’t help that the Big 5 PMV pavilion which is housed at one end of the show seemed like one of the quieter areas, with through traffic slow compared to the hustle and bustle of the tightly packed show halls near the front of the exhibition.

However numbers only tell part of the story. At some events, when exhibitors tell you that it is about quantity and not quality and they’ve been pleased with the people they seen, it can seem like they are rehearsing that difficult report meeting when they go back and have to justify their expense claims on the back of a few contracts and pencilled IOUs.

For once, that would be doing the event, the exhibitors and those that were there spending, a massive disservice.

Of course there were a few grumblings from exhibitors displeased with their locations but you expect that as not everyone can place themselves right next to the front door. at a show this large.