ITU fair fails to draw big attention

Few visitors are seen at the ITU Telecom World at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO), Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Kang Seung-woo

By Lee Min-hyung

BUSAN — A global telecom exhibition has ended in a de facto failure, drawing little attention from visitors here and abroad due to the old-fashioned and tedious event management of the government, watchers said Friday.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World 2017 kicked off Monday in the nation’s largest port city here under the big theme of smart digital transformation.

But the four-day tech fair, which ended Thursday, failed to meet its hype as it came with few eye-catching events organized by relevant government bodies.

Even if the ITU Telecom World is a decades-long global exhibition, no international business leaders or renowned companies had been invited to this year’s event. This is because the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Busan Metropolitan City government, the two main partners for the event, did little to attract overseas visitors because of their passive event management and promotional activities, according to booth officials.

“Some people came to take a look at the show on the first day, but the number of visitors continued to plunge each day,” said a booth official from one of the participating companies.

“To be honest, there has been little to watch this time. The government said the event was aimed at helping small companies attract investment from overseas buyers. But few foreign visitors appeared to have come here to seek business with small companies.”

Only a few companies such as SK Telecom and KT have drawn the spotlight from visitors, as their booths were packed with entertaining and attention-grabbing shows or devices. But most of the booths of the small participants were inactive due to the tiny number of visitors to the show.

Another official from one of the participating firms said: “It would have been better for the government to prepare for such a global event in a more organized way by leaving a stronger impression on visitors.”

As part of the government’s bid to boost the show, Busan invited groups of high school students to the event for free, but this kind of promotional strategy should come to an end, and the government needs to put priority on enhancing the overall quality of the show, according to the official.

“Students are filling up the exhibition halls, which does no good for the participants of the event,” he said. “They pay an enormous amount of money to rent the booth during the fair. Most overseas companies participating in the show must have been disappointed by the botched event management.”

ITU Telecom Asia 2004

Things were totally different in 2004 when Busan hosted the ITU Telecom Asia at the same venue.

Back then, the government had prepared for the event early on. It encouraged leading Korean high-tech companies to proactively show off their competitiveness in information technology and telecommunications.

A number of global powerhouses also took part in the event, which attracted many foreign visitors throughout its five-day run in September.

President Roh Moo-hyun opened the event, which drew leading players in the regional and global telecom industry as well as top-level representatives of governments and regulators. This year, the ICT minister was the highest government bureaucrat of Korea to attend the Telecom World. President Moon Jae-in just sent congratulatory messages.

“In 2004, the government really pushed us for the success of the ITU Telecom Asia. Hence, we had no choice but to have a big interest in it. Our top executives also visited Busan to be part of the exhibition,” said an official of a domestic telecom firm.

“But that was not the case this time around. The government seems not to have cared too much about it for some reason. So our executives paid little attention to the ITU Telecom World.”