A hectic week in China
During the third week in May, two key events took place concurrently in the Far East – the biggest fair in the region, the China International Medicinal Equipment Fair in Shanghai, and the professionally focused international Hong Kong Medical Devices and Supplies Fair 2017. Thanks to its broad-based commercial marketing team, the LINET Group was able to exhibit successfully at both events and engage customers in both mainland China and autonomous Hong Kong.
“Our strategy of direct presentation at regional fairs and congresses has proved the right one. We are going to promote and develop it on a global basis,” stated Petr Foit, Commercial Director at LINET. China International Medicinal Equipment Fair with its two sessions (spring and autumn) has become the largest fair for medical equipment and related products and services in the Asia-Pacific region. “The CMEF is just huge. It is crowded, loud, busy and hectic. The halls are gigantic and some of the booths are almost as big as a football field,” was the description of Christian Wurm, Area Sales Manager for Greater China and North Asia. The generously-designed stand displayed an overview of the entire portfolio and live presentations made the whole concept more attractive.
“Our state-of-the-art Multicare bed for ICUs and the powered air surface Virtuoso mattress attracted a lot of attention. The change from the one-child to two-child policy comes with a growing demand for maternity hospitals, which also care for the new-born. Our AVE bed was very well received at the CMEF,” said Christian Wurm. “With the great support of our trainer Tereza Halfarová, we presented e.g. how easy mobilisation is with the lateral tilt and the MobiLift. Chinese customers are hungry to learn and all our presentations attracted a lot of customers. They stopped, watched, asked questions, tried for themselves, took pictures and videos – it was crowded and there was great interaction at the LINET stand with our end-users,” he added.
By contrast, Hong Kong Medical Devices and Supplies Fair 2017 had a more intimate atmosphere. The professional dimension of the event is highly regarded, as it is precisely targeted at decision makers, doctors and key hospital staff. The LINET Group was exhibiting here for the first time, in the Czech Hall. The Czech organisation team, headed by Consul General Lucie Nebesářová, also arranged a seminar for the four Czech exhibitors, in which LINET was given a slot to present the brand, its philosophy and its products. The 4-day fair programme was in particular filled with presentations of the premium beds. There was great interest in the new Eleganza 5 and the TOP products, the Multicare and TOM 2 beds; a special dialysis bed, the Borcad, provided a broader snapshot of the collection, along with the smart Sentida 7i bed for the care sector. In addition, we managed to carry out successful negotiations with key partners. Most important in this respect was the official meeting with the Director and other representatives of the Hospital Authority Hong Kong, the umbrella organisation for all local public health institutions.
The Hong Kong Medical Devices and Supplies Fair took place this year for the eighth time. “Visitors were many and varied, and people travelled to the fair from all over Asia, from India, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, to name but a few,” explained Alexander Širin, LINET Group clinical coach. “The fair organisation was perfect, and the thematic division was excellent, as it helped visitors to find all the information from a specific field in one place,” he added.
“In Shanghai we exhibited our entire portfolio to a massive audience, similar to the one we presented to in Hong Kong. I am delighted that our products are comparable with the global cutting edge in the field, and that we are the current technological market leaders” Petr Foit concluded.
