No day passes without trade exhibition
No day passes without trade exhibition
Satyasuryawan, Contributor, Jakarta
The Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) in Senayan, Central Jakarta, has become a major trade exhibition venue in the capital.
On almost any given day, especially during the weekend, you are sure to find an exhibition of some kind or another being held at this fully booked venue.
The range of exhibitions is almost limitless, from the automotive industry, computers, audio-visual, Internet, books, furniture and the oil and gas industry, to clothes and bridal gowns. The JCC also serves as a venue for other events, such as conferences, seminars, product launches, weddings, music concerts, religious meetings, graduation ceremonies, alumni reunion parties and so forth.
The thousands of visitors who come to the JCC do not seem to mind waiting in their cars in a long line to enter the venue, standing in line to enter the exhibition site, paying an extra unofficial parking fee of Rp 3,000, and even paying an entrance fee to the exhibition site from anywhere between Rp 5,000 and hundreds of thousand rupiah.
The Jakarta Convention Center is definitely a magnet. Besides its huge exhibition space -- tens of thousands of square meters -- and abundant parking spaces, it is strategically located in the heart of the capital and is easy to reach for both Jakartans and those coming from other cities. The highly popular name "Senayan" is a guarantee in itself that exhibition organizers will be able to sell events held here.
From an organizer's point of view, these are some of the factors that contribute to the success of an exhibition or a conference. The JCC's complete range of facilities also makes it easy for organizers to be highly creative.
"The kind of facilities available or offered by the owner is one of the major considerations before we decide on a venue," said Soehoed, the operational director at Dyandra Promosindo.
As one of the leading players in the exhibition business, Dyandra fully understands the needs of exhibitors. Besides an enormous venue, they also require additional facilities such as extra telephone lines for instant business transactions and extra electricity for the installment of audio-video equipment. Most hotels and other venues cannot meet such demands.
The Jakarta Fairground at Kemayoran, in spite of the similar facilities it offers exhibitors, is less popular than the JCC. Its huge exhibition venue and parking area do not add up to much, because its location is considered less strategic and its interior is far less luxurious than the JCC's star-rated hotel- like ambience.
The Bidakara Building in the Pancoran area of Jl. Gatot Subroto was once briefly popular as an exhibition venue. Unfortunately, driving to Bidakara, especially in the evenings, gave many people a headache and made them think twice before deciding to go to this venue.
Taman Mini Indonesia Indah also has ample space for exhibitions and there was a plan to build an exhibition and conference center here that would have been larger than the JCC's. However, that plan has not been realized. This site is not frequently used by exhibition or event organizers, apparently due to its unfavorable location and the frequent traffic jams around the toll gates. This place seems to be more suitable for cultural events.
Star-rated hotels in Jakarta also have function rooms with sufficient facilities. However, recently event organizers are not making much use of them, except for weddings, seminars, press conferences or business meetings, even though location-wise they are usually very strategic and right in the heart of Jakarta, such as the Hotel Hilton, which is next to the JCC, Le Meridien on Jl. Sudirman, the Grand Hyatt on Jl. Thamrin, the Gran Melia on Jl. Kuningan or the Hotel Borobudur near Lapangan Banteng.
The major source of revenue for hotels is not their function rooms, but rather their guest rooms. The contribution of their function rooms becomes more significant when the occupancy rate is low, for example on weekdays. A function room with a 3,000 person capacity can easily bring in revenue of Rp 45 million (about US$5,000), which is no small amount.
The fee for holding an exhibition in a five-star hotel is similar to that for the JCC. The JCC charges exhibitors US$4.20 per square meter for 12 hours, with the exchange rate fixed at Rp 5,000 per US dollar, as compared to the market rate of about Rp 9,000 per dollar.
The interior and ambience of a five-star hotel is certainly more plush in comparison with that of the JCC, but still only ceremonial, exclusive events or activities of a smaller scale take place at these hotels, such as gold and jewelry exhibitions or certain audio-video exhibitions that require better acoustics.
"Some people are still reluctant to come to a hotel even for an exhibition," Soehoed added.
Apart from the limited space for exhibitions and parking, plus the traffic congestion in their vicinity, hotels also cannot fully provide a large number of extra telephone lines or the huge amount of extra power required for certain types of exhibitions. And according to Soehoed, exhibitions at hotels should be held on the ground floor and not on the upper levels, to make loading and unloading much easier.
One Jakarta hotel that is still making money from its function room is the Hotel Sahid Jaya, which is strategically located in the capital's business center. Ayuningsih, the hotel's PR manager, said the Puri Agung ballroom was frequently booked by exhibition and seminar organizers, and was also often used for social activities such as weddings.
For its function room business, the Hotel Sahid Jaya is quite proactive. All 22 of its function rooms, with capacities ranging from 10 to 3,000, are actively marketed by the hotel's telemarketers. The hotel also offers a two-in-one package that consists of a meeting-cum-leisure concept. In this offer a seminar held at the hotel includes a recreation and shopping tour around Jakarta for the families of attendees.
"We strive to meet our customers' needs," said Ayuningsih.
The marketing of function rooms in some ways is very much like that for a restaurant. Managers must fully understand the needs and desires of their customers. Ambience certainly plays an important role in attracting more customers. Above all, the kind of proactive marketing conducted by Hotel Sahid Jaya would put any marketer of function rooms a step ahead of his competitors. -- Satyasuryawan