Thoughts of an Expo Worker on the China International Import Expo
Ji Lude
May 24, 2018
There are 164 days left before the opening of the China International Import Expo, which has attracted worldwide attention. This article refers to it as CIIE. It is the world's first national-level expo dedicated to imports, and it is the finale among China's four major host-country diplomatic events this year. Holding such an exhibition in Shanghai fully shows the central government's trust in Shanghai. At the same time, Shanghai bears an enormous responsibility: this project must be successful and splendid. It cannot fall short, and it certainly cannot fail.
My first contact with this project was in June last year, when the host city had not yet been decided. The Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Industries Association, where I work, held an International Exhibition Industry CEO Summit that June. At the summit, well-known international exhibition figures, including Shanghai's international advisers for the exhibition industry, held discussions on topics such as how to hold the China International Import Expo. After the central government decided that Shanghai would host CIIE, friends from the Exhibition Industry Department of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and from the National Exhibition and Convention Center contacted me to ask about several practices from Expo 2010 Shanghai. Since Shanghai had successfully hosted the World Expo, the largest international event Shanghai had ever held, its experience and lessons should naturally be used as reference for future large international events in the city. From then on I began to pay attention to CIIE and consciously compare the World Expo with CIIE.
CIIE is now being prepared with great urgency. From the central government to local authorities, many people are devoting all their energy to it and losing sleep over it. My thinking is intended only to add one small tile to this project. I believe many people who participated in Expo 2010 Shanghai have similar thoughts.
I. Comparison of the Two Major Expos
Overall, the two expos are similar in that both are major international-level projects. Both involve many government departments, enterprises and institutions, broad mobilization of society, complex work systems across departments and levels, and the interweaving of routine management and emergency management. There are also many differences. One especially striking difference is that Expo 2010 Shanghai had an 11-year period from bidding to hosting, including incubation, planning and preparation, while CIIE has only 18 months from announcement to opening. It is basically being conceived, planned and operated at the same time. Under such circumstances, it is extremely important to learn from the experience and lessons of Expo 2010 Shanghai and help CIIE avoid detours.
1. Similarities
First, positioning and function. Both expos are important public-diplomacy platforms. Participating countries in Expo 2010 Shanghai did not simply treat the event as a carnival for the public; likewise, governments participating in CIIE will not come to China purely out of economic motives. Hosting and participating in the World Expo and CIIE are both results of national decisions. Behind economic and cultural exchanges, they express national will, convey diplomatic messages and clarify a country's posture in the international community.
As Premier Wen Jiabao once said, China truly treated the hosting of Expo 2010 Shanghai as a major undertaking because it gave the world an opportunity to understand China and gave China an opportunity to understand the world. At the Boao Forum on April 10 this year, President Xi Jinping pointed out that CIIE is not an ordinary exhibition, but a major policy declaration and action by China to open its market proactively.
Second, operating mechanism. Both expos are enterprise operations under a government background. Expo 2010 Shanghai and CIIE are both major international events requiring large resources, including administrative resources, diplomatic resources and financial resources. Because they have a clear government background, they must be government-led, with government mobilizing and organizing social resources based on existing management rules. On the other hand, project operation must consider the law of value and operate through market mechanisms. Government cannot invest public funds without limit. Therefore, there must be a business legal entity that can assume limited liability, and a dedicated enterprise must be established for the project.
For example, Expo 2010 Shanghai was specifically operated by the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. According to the requirement for market-oriented operation of government projects, and with approval from the Ministry of Finance under the State Council, a special accounting method was formulated for the Bureau. Based on this method, the Bureau could conduct Expo project operations, review economic contracts, make fund payments, and manage cash from sponsorship and ticket revenue.
Third, organizational system. Both expos are national projects supported by local authorities. These two projects are national-level events and represent statements by the central government to the international community, including invitations and commitments. Their location is Shanghai. Therefore, both are implemented by local government under the leadership of the central government.
The organizational system of Expo 2010 Shanghai was that an Expo Organizing Committee was established at the State Council level, an Expo Executive Committee was established at the Shanghai municipal level, and Shanghai formed the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination to undertake the specific preparation and operation work.
CIIE follows a similar pattern, with corresponding leadership and decision-making levels as well as operational working levels at both the central and local government levels. Therefore, both projects must solve the division of responsibilities between central and local government bodies, and between administrative institutions and specific undertakers.
2. Differences
First, project cycle. The World Expo was a one-time project, and its organization was temporary. CIIE is a long-term institution and needs long-term and institutionalized mechanisms. Because the World Expo was one-time, many work links were handled as special cases, which challenged normal rules and procedures for enterprises and government institutions. CIIE will exist over the long term, so within a reasonable scope it should work according to the procedures of each line. If there is innovation, it should become institutionalized and normalized.
Second, project content. The World Expo was mainly cultural exchange, and most participants were ordinary members of the public. CIIE is mainly economic and trade exchange, and most participants are businesspeople. Therefore the World Expo had broader social mobilization and was more public-oriented, while CIIE places more emphasis on professionalism. The purpose of CIIE must be clear: it is economic behavior guided by political will and has mandatory economic indicators.
Third, the driving force of internationalization. Although both projects are highly international, the World Expo had clear international rules. For the organizer, this was a form of passive internationalization. CIIE is active internationalization. Precisely because of this, CIIE needs to attach greater importance to communication with all exhibitors and prevent us from unconsciously imposing our own ideas on them.
II. How to Understand Support Work
The organizers of CIIE are the Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai Municipal Government. For this purpose, the Shanghai Municipal Government established the CIIE Urban Support Leading Group in November 2017. Broadly speaking, the Ministry of Commerce is responsible for investment attraction, exhibitor recruitment and forums, while the Shanghai Municipal Government is responsible for support work.
This division of labor should generally meet practical needs. But support is a broad concept. If support work is not properly understood and if mechanisms are unreasonable, a disconnect may arise between support work and the object being supported: the supporters do not know the specific needs, while those needing support do not receive it in time.
When we talk about support, the first thing that comes to mind is support by auxiliary business for core business. Exhibitor recruitment is a core business of CIIE. To improve its effectiveness, social promotion must be carried out, a favorable public-opinion atmosphere must be created, and awareness must be raised. Here, publicity is a form of support. After exhibitor recruitment comes booth construction, and on-site construction requires many auxiliary tasks. Once the exhibition begins, the needs of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people for food, accommodation, transport, tourism, shopping and entertainment must be met. Therefore support first refers to the relationship between auxiliary business and core business. Core and auxiliary business must be closely integrated.
All business consumes resources. This leads to the second meaning of support: resource support. CIIE is held in Shanghai, so a large number of staff members and volunteers must be provided by Shanghai; many material consumables must be solved locally in Shanghai; and many technological needs must be explored, tested and equipped in Shanghai. Providers and users of resources must also be closely integrated.
When increasing amounts of people, funds and materials gather around a common goal, a third kind of support emerges: institutional support. This is the institutional arrangement that coordinates all resources, ensures smooth information flow and implements plans on schedule. During Expo 2010 Shanghai, more than 2,700 full-time personnel were under the unified leadership of the Expo Bureau, and support from many departments and units across the city was under the unified command of one headquarters.
For scientific division of labor, smooth relationships and a more reasonable top-level design, a fourth kind of support is needed: intellectual support. There should be a calm advisory team that does not undertake specific tasks but closely follows work progress, pays attention to changes in the situation, identifies problems at any time and proposes countermeasures.
Clearly, support cannot be viewed in isolation. Support should be integrated with other work modules and follow the same logical starting point: meeting the final needs of clients. Otherwise, support work itself will not be supported, let alone the core business.
Of course, when discussing how to provide effective support, we should note an interesting difference between the two expos. The World Expo was a one-time project; if something went wrong, there was no chance to correct it. CIIE is long-term. If there are shortcomings this year, as long as they are not fatal, scoring 60 points this year means passing. It can then continue exploring, reach 70 or 80 points next year, and gradually improve.
III. CIIE and the Development of Shanghai's Convention and Exhibition Industry
1. CIIE is a historic opportunity for the development of Shanghai's convention and exhibition industry.
Holding CIIE in Shanghai is both recognition of the comprehensive strength of Shanghai's industry and a major driver for its development.
Like other Chinese cities, Shanghai did not have a true convention and exhibition industry in the planned-economy era. Exhibitions, apart from shop-window displays, were mostly a few government exhibitions. After reform and opening-up, with the development and improvement of the market economy system, the convention and exhibition industry flourished. Especially after Expo 2010 Shanghai, the city's industry received great attention from the international community. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai proposed the goal of building itself into an international exhibition capital.
2. The development of Shanghai's industry is a natural historical process.
Setting the goal of becoming an international exhibition capital first requires international benchmarking. Compared with internationally famous convention and exhibition cities, Shanghai still has considerable gaps in industry statistics, standard formulation and implementation, public information platforms, one-stop government services, talent training and level certification, and the comprehensive strength of enterprises. Therefore, achieving the goal of an international exhibition capital is a long-term process. In this process, the laws of industry development are continuously explored, enterprises and talent continuously gather and grow, standards are continuously improved, and exhibition brands are continuously cultivated. Under ordinary natural historical conditions, these processes are relatively slow. But during the preparation of CIIE, deeper contradictions are exposed and mechanisms for industry development are placed on the agenda, accelerating the process.
3. Grasp both ends to accelerate the process.
Building Shanghai into an international exhibition capital is an interactive process between government and enterprises. Grasping both ends means making efforts on both the government side and the enterprise side.
Government cannot directly manage enterprises. Government effort is reflected in the promotion mechanism for the exhibition industry. In April 2015, the State Council issued Document No. 15, stating that in recent years China's exhibition industry had developed rapidly and had become an important platform for building a modern market system and an open economy system, with an increasingly prominent role in China's economic and social development. In the following one or two years, Shanghai, like other parts of the country, issued guidance for implementing the spirit of State Council Document No. 15 and established a joint conference system to promote local exhibition industry development. But after this system was established, there seemed to be little substantive action. Can we activate this system while providing support for CIIE, and discuss, study and solve problems one by one?
On the enterprise side, the first task is to improve the strength of individual enterprises as quickly as possible. More importantly, the enterprise ecosystem should be improved and the comprehensive competitiveness of the industry should be enhanced. The official description is that CIIE is equivalent to the World Expo plus the Canton Fair plus the Boao Forum. Clearly, CIIE needs a large amount of convention and exhibition services. In addition to venues, it requires planning, construction, logistics, commerce, protocol reception, multilingual interpretation, general information technology and big-data services. This requires maximum mobilization and organization of exhibition resources. In this way, Shanghai can meet the immediate needs of CIIE while forging the long-term development foundation of its convention and exhibition industry.