On April 5, 2013 in the picturesque area of Zakarpattya - Zhdeiyevo village training workshop for wood-processing companies of the Western Ukraine had been conducted. With the financial and informational support of Swiss Import Promotion Program SIPPO and organizational support of NGO FORZA six companies will take part in the one of the biggest world-wide exhibition Interzum 2013. Half of the participants will participate in this exhibition for the first time and therefore getting practical advices how to get prepared to such an event better is very important and relevant for them. Nevertheless all the companies have experience of participation in other exhibitions, knowledge received during training workshop was defined by them as useful and interesting. Experienced participants - “Elitewood” and “Maxiflex” shared their experience with the newcomers of Interzum.
During the training workshop representatives of the companies found out what one has to do before, during and after the fair. Participants learned peculiarities of the Interzum exhibition, what and how to present and take with, which company’s production samples to exhibit, which marketing materials should be prepared and distributed, how to train staff for the work on the booth, what should be avoided and which mistakes not to make, who is European partner and who are non-target clients, how to plan exhibition’s time etc. Also participants learnt that period “after” the fair is as important and time-consuming as periods “before” and “during”. During this time it is extremely important to correctly process contacts received during the fair, to assess effectiveness of participation in it and to work further with the potential partners. Practical part of the training was dedicated to the communication of different types of participants and visitors of the exhibition. Most of the participants presented their work in foreign language what is very important in the international fair. The best results of this task were shown by Vasyl Fozekosh (K*len) and Rostovcev Ihor (Olles).
Participants had an opportunity to once more critically assess individual preparedness and determine what else they should do before exhibition and which issues should be agreed with SIPPO.
Among other participants received information about international fair of the timber and wood-processing industry - Ligna 2013, which will take place in Germany on 06-10 of May, 2013 in Hannover city. This is convenient for companies willing to combine participation in Ligna and Interzum fairs. Participants also learnt about other realistic possibility to get support for development of their business and new products manufacturing involving volunteer-experts from different sectors and directions in frame of Swiss Expert Corp SWISSCONTACTS.
Another pleasant outcome of the training workshop was the fact that companies leant more about each other, found common issues in the preparation to the fair, established contacts, particularly cooperation around production transporting and shipping, peculiarities of the custom arrangement, further common qualitative and timely executing of the big orders of one-type production etc. Other wood-processing companies of Ukraine also plan to participate in the Interzum 2013, but participation with the support of SIPPO and FORZA, and it was noted by companies-participants of the training and fair, is the big competitive and financial advantage for them. We wish good luck to our wood-processors in the Inerzum 2013!