Monday, November 18, 2019

Supposed to be at DSEI Japan...

I was supposed to be visiting DSEI Japan, "Japan's first integrated defense event" today.

But instead, I am not. Why? Because the organizers did not manage to send out the passes to registrants in time. I mean, today is the actual day of the exhibition, and yet not even an email was received. It is really a pity because I was looking forward to attending the event's conference, at which two of the speakers are people whom I have worked with before when I was still in uniform.

Having been involved in IMDEX Asia several times in the past, this comes as a shock to me. Something so basic, like emailing entry passes to registrants, can fail. It makes me wonder if the organizers are even serious about making this inaugural event a success.

I can only speak from experience, and I do know that the organizers of IMDEX Asia and Singapore Airshow put in a lot of effort to work with the Singapore military to ensure that the VIPs invited to the events are given the best in hospitality, and to ensure that a high degree of interactions take place between visitors and exhibitors. For DSEI Japan... my own limited interaction with one of the organizers did not give me such assurance. All I can say is, in that limited interaction, I left with serious doubts as to whether they are really serious about making this inaugural event a success.

The success of such a trade show lies in being able to create as much interaction between visitors (potential clients) and exhibitors. And impressions are one of the most important things for that to happen. People need to have confidence that the organizers are able to provide opportunities for such interaction. It does not help that the organizers failed at one of the most basic things--sending out the entry passes in time. If you cannot do even such a basic task properly, who is going to have confidence in you that you can succeed at the other, more complex tasks?

By the way, I was told that if I go to the exhibition venue, I should be able to receive a pass by providing my details again (i.e. go through the registration process again). I decided I would not do so because my confidence in the organizers had been badly shaken, and I have serious doubts as to whether I should spend time visiting an exhibition where the organizers may not be as serious about it as I am about attending.

If I were to add a hastag to this post, it would be
#DSEIJapan #failure
just from this basic inability to get the entry passes correct.

(It seems the official Twitter pages, DSEI_Japan and DSEI_jp, are not being updated too, even though the event has opened for several hours now and keynote speakers have spoken. The Facebook page has not been updated for a long long while. In this age of social media, one can only wonder what the organizers are thinking.)

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