Poor Show

We were all being bombarded since a month or so about this exhibition called " Zak Salaam India" and finally we decided to go for the same on saturday 18th August. We were expecting something good to cherish about based on the promotions seen on television.

One thing which is a real pain is the venue for the event, Singapore expo centre which is like one end of the city and it takes hell of a time to reach this place, by bus, trian or taxi. taxi is also expensive. We had the big cab in mind to go to this place, Maxicab which is a 7 seater taxi is run by comfort & we tried to get this booked since my family and another friend's family were planning to go together. Unfortunately, it was tough to get the cab after trying for about 15-20 mins and we gave up the idea of taking this cab & instead take the normal cab. The journey takes about 30-35 mins by cab as well and one easily needs to shell about S$18-20 to get to this place.

Surprisingly when we arrived which was pretty late like 6 pm something, we saw the crowd walking towards us rather than to the exhibition hall. After walking the long corridor towards hall 3 we arrived at the entrance where we had to fill up a small form. I still am in doubt what they are going to do with the information, since it does ask for any specific information. Anyway, we entered the hall and were glad and confused to see familiar names from India industry - Ministry of Food and Agriculture & companies like Ayur, Yoga institutes & few other well known names which I can't recollect. There were a few educational institutes like SP Jain institute of management, VIT Pune, and few others. Then there were advertisings & stalls from real estate industry advertising for plots & houses in India. Some of them claimed to be very cost effective for plots & houses in India, in the current boom in real estate, but somehow none of us were convinced about the authencity of these companies. we moved on & came across some handicraft & jewellery items, which again seemed out of place. Not so sure if any indian citizens would have thought of buying the indian stuff at a fat price at this exhibition, rather than buying it in india from a reliable source & good price.
One of the stalls which was talking about Yoga for Life, was infact conducting Yoga sessions, in the midst of this chaos & people enthusiastically were trying to do it in the space that was available. But it was not a good place to practice it, is what I felt.
Finally we were little hungry and moved to the eating stalls - Komalas, Andhra Curry, Gangotri and few others. We had Dosa, medu vada & biryani. Biryani was a disappointment!!
All in all, I felt this was a very unfocused event, not trying to woo the intended audience (who that is again a question). The stalls had very letharigic and uninterested people at the counters who didn't look interested to talk to the customers. (as if they knew none were interested) The food quality was not so good and the cleanliness was also not taken care of.
Hope the indian companies come with a focused approach & target client & make money and get useful leads from this type of event. If they try to get Indian crowd to come for the event but not satisfy them, then how is it going to work for international citizens. Secondly Branding is something Indian companies need to look at seriously if they ought to enter foreign markets and make big ultimately, which is what the whole exercise is for.