Editorial – July 2024
Recently, I visited a foundry exhibition in India. Since it wasn’t held in a metro city like Mumbai, Pune, or Kolkata, I assumed there wouldn’t be many exhibitors. To my utmost surprise, however, there were over 250 exhibitors, including some of the biggest business houses operating in the foundry sector. “Oh, these organizers must be smart to gather such a huge number of exhibitors, but what about the visitors?” I thought. It’s not easy to attract visitors to an exhibition; most exhibitions fail not because of a lack of exhibitors but due to a shortage of visitors.
I purposely reached the venue on the second day. The first day of any exhibition is usually busy with the inauguration and other formalities, and some stands may still be doing finishing touches and aren’t fully ready to welcome visitors. The second day is typically the busiest day. I arrived around 9:30 am, and there were hardly any visitors. But as the clock struck 10, the visitors started flowing in, and the flow didn’t stop until evening. It was amazing.
A question came to mind: “What about the quality of visitors?” Many super-smart organizers invite engineering students to visit exhibitions. While it increases the numbers and makes the venue look packed, it’s not always useful to the exhibitors. Students gain knowledge, but exhibitors lose time, resources, and money. One exhibitor reassured me, saying, “Sir, the visitors are of very high quality. We’ve received many genuine inquiries and have even closed three big deals.”
One of the exhibitors addressed my curiosity, explaining, “This event must be a real success; otherwise, who would come to this remote location every year?” Actually, this was only the second year of the exhibition, yet it had managed to attract both exhibitors and visitors alike.
One of the organizers, who happened to be known to me, shared his approach: “We worked sincerely and explained everything to the exhibitors—no hidden costs, everything transparent. Our biggest team is not for marketing exhibitors but for attracting quality visitors. Most organizers make this mistake.” He was quite candid. “Also, we’re very fortunate. The foundry industry has been growing over the past two or three years, which has supported our show immensely.”
Indeed, the foundry sector has been thriving recently. I noticed many casting units were expanding capacity and diversifying products. “But exports aren’t rising. Europe seems stagnant. Where is this growth coming from?” I asked one of the large casting producers and exporters.
“Sir, our focus is now on the Indian market,” he replied. “I know the global situation isn’t great; many countries are in recession. But the situation in India is relatively stable, and we’re expanding capacity based on India’s growth projections.” Journalists have a habit of finding negatives in everything. “But what if India’s growth slows down? What will happen to your enhanced capacity?” I questioned.
“Sir, along with capacity expansion, we’re investing heavily in smart manufacturing—Industry 4.0. It’s yielding great results in terms of productivity and efficiency. We’ll soon be very competitive globally,” he said with confidence. “This is the new-age entrepreneur of India,” I thought to myself.