Hong Kong was voted the top city for exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific region, and the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) the best exhibition venue by Singapore-based CEI
Asia Pacific magazine in its recent Exhibition Venues Survey.

HKCEC managing director Cliff Wallace says that HKCEC enjoys some distinct advantages. “The quality of the venue including architecture, furnishings, functionality is among the best in the world,” he said.

“People who vote on ‘the Best Exhibition Venue’ do so based on the comparison of venues they use and what they have achieved by way of results for the events held in those venues. They would probably select the HKCEC first, since exhibitions held here do well. What results from these exhibitions is a strong exhibitor and buyer base.”

HKCEC also benefits from its location in “one of the greatest international and cosmopolitan cities in the world, a city with amazing infrastructure and ease of business. This is a city of amenities, with so many within the proximity of the HKCEC,” added Mr Wallace.

Trade fair organiser CMP Asia Ltd has no doubt that HKCEC deserves the recognition as it offers “the best service” as an exhibition venue.

According to Michael Duck, senior vice president of CMP Asia, HKCEC is “an architectural statement located in the centre of Asia” and in the “most dramatic harbour in the world”. As an exhibition venue, it is “equidistant between Japan and Singapore and is situated on the coast of the most productive and important manufacturing area of the Chinese mainland.”

In tough economic times, venue cost remains a priority factor, said Mr Duck. “HKCEC has never professed to being cheap. But this is overshadowed by factors like the quality of the material and the building standards which are probably the best in the world. It also offers the most advanced communication facilities.”

Despite its achievements, Mr Wallace says HKCEC will not allow complacency to set in, and will continue to “do whatever it takes to meet the increasing demand from all of our organisers, especially the exhibition organisers.”

Already, HKCEC is planning the development of Phase III. Mr Wallace sees it as a “second extension”, and is keen that it is carefully planned to “enhance the development of new business and/or allow us to free up convention, conference and meeting space that is now not available during the peak usage periods in the Fall and Spring where this space is also needed for exhibitions.”