By Heneage Mitchell

ProTobEx Asia (Philippine International Conference Center (PICC), Manila, Philippines, from March 15-17, 2012) is fast shaping up to be the event to be seen at by tobacco people next year.
Perhaps it is because the exhibition represents something new and exciting in the tobacco industry’s universe, an event organized by the publishers of Tobacco Asia, the region’s most experienced and informed tobacco trade publication with the most comprehensive database of regional tobacco industry professionals to be found anywhere.

Perhaps it’s because the dynamics of the event are clearly superior to anything that has been seen in Asia before. Coupled with Inter-tabac ASIA, which is hosted by Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund (MW), this combined show is the first truly international, vertically integrated tobacco event ever held in Asia. MW also operates Inter-tabac Dortmund, which has been the world’s largest tobacco exhibition for 33 years now attracting tobacco industry professionals from all corners of the world. At ProTobEx Asia and Inter-tabac Asia, all segments of the tobacco industry are represented making this a top-to-bottom, leaf-to-product experience, a unique and compelling international industry networking experience that has no equal in Asia or elsewhere.
Perhaps it’s because Manila itself is an exciting destination in its own right and locating the event in this dynamic city has sparked the imagination of tobacco professionals from around the world.
Maybe it’s because the Philippines has a long and dynamic history of cultivating tobacco and producing world-class cigars for hundreds of years and the domestic industry has whole-heartedly lent its support to the event.
Or maybe it is because the value represented for exhibitors and the opportunities for networking with colleagues and professionals from all segments of the industry are unsurpassed.

Sparking the imagination
Whatever the reasons, ProTobEx ASIA and Inter-tabac ASIA have sparked the imagination of the international tobacco industry.
The exhibition floor is rapidly filling up with international tobacco machinery, equipment, suppliers, services and leaf companies anxious to ensure their presence at Asia’s only vertically integrated tobacco exhibition. In the next hall, the same can be said for Inter-tabac Asia, the region’s first tobacco products and accessories show
Exhibiting at ProTobEx Asia opens the door to the regional and international tobacco industry more effectively and more economically than any regional event so far managed. October Multimedia (OM), organizers of ProTobEx Asia, has many years of experience doing business in Asia. As publishers of TOBACCO ASIA magazine, which has been reporting on region’s tobacco industry since 1995, OM is uniquely placed to be able to deliver a cutting-edge and highly effective tobacco trade exhibition that will serve the needs and expectations of the international tobacco community.
Together with its partners, Tobacco China Online, OM is aggressively marketing the event to tobacco professionals from all segments of the industry throughout Asia and the rest of the world. It is anticipated that visitors and delegates will be seen in greater numbers and from more countries than is normally the case in events that focus primarily on a domestic market. In particular, great effort has been put into attracting visitors from mainland China, and this in itself has proved to be a key factor in deciding to participate for the number of exhibitors.

Cost-effective and rewarding
Whether launching a new product or service, underscoring an existing portfolio, reaching out to new buyers and prospective customers or further cementing existing relationships, exhibiting at ProTobEx Asia is simply the most cost-effective and rewarding solution to meeting the market in Asia and beyond.
Manila is bending over backwards to welcome delegates and visitors and exhibitors to this seminal event. And the city has many unique opportunities and advantages for show attendees; its proximity to world-class golf courses, sparkling white sand beach resorts, nightlife options that are the envy of Asia, world-class entertainment and dining, an English-speaking population, a supportive domestic tobacco industry and national and local government endorsement.

The venue
The Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where both ProTobEx Asia and Inter-tabac Asia will be held from March 15-17, 2012, is a secure, practical, functional, private and government-owned facility with a professional management team that has been in operation for several decades.
It is situated less than 20 minutes from Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport and a two-minute walk from the front door of the luxurious Sofitel Hotel, which boasts first-class dining facilities and entertainment options including a casino and resplendent views of the surrounding Manila Bay and its world-famous sunsets. The PICC and the Sofitel Hotel are located at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) complex in Pasay City, a semi-autonomous area with its own police force, an abundance of shopping opportunities including the huge SM shopping mall just a five-minute walk away. As there are no residential compounds in the CCP complex, there is very little traffic. The entire area is given over to commercial and cultural activities. Accordingly visiting businessmen will find the environment and the atmosphere entirely conducive to achieving commercial success through networking at the exhibition venue and at the staggeringly huge choices of adjacent dining and entertainment venues, all of which can be reached easily either on foot or by readily available taxis or hotel transportation.
And yes, thanks to a special dispensation granted by the City of Pasay, smoking is allowed inside the venue.

Irresistible
There are still booths available – and given the unique design of the venue with its high ceiling and totally open floor (there are no support pillars to compromise stand layouts and access) there are no “bad” locations. Visitors will naturally pass by all exhibitors’ booths thanks to the unique layout of the floor plan. The organizers have allowed for ample public meeting areas and private spaces for more discreet networking opportunities.
The venue has free WiFi access, and Manila has easily accessible 3G and 4G networks ensuring seamless communication from the moment you arrive in the country.
Sponsorship and promotional opportunities include a huge variety of world-class dining and entertainment options, adjacent to the venue and throughout Metro Manila. The Manila Yacht Club is in the same complex as the PICC, so chartering a vessel, either a yacht or a larger boat, to cruise Manila Bay while entertaining in style is certainly an option for companies seeking to offer an exclusive networking experience.
How about a round of golf on one of the many nearby world-class courses? Whatever your company finds appropriate, whether it is a cocktail party, a gala dinner, a branded cultural event or discreet evening entertainment, Manila has it all.
The weather in March is typically warm, fine and sunny, so for industry attendees with families, the temptation to explore the fabled beaches and tropical hideaways of the Philippines, such as Puerto Galera, Boracay, Cebu and Anilao before or after the event may be irresistible.
Summing up, there is no other tobacco industry show in the region – probably the world – that delivers the top-to-bottom industry coverage, the value, the dynamism, the excitement or the potential that the combination of ProTobEx ASIA and Inter-tabac ASIA does.
Finally there is a choice.
Make ProTobEx ASIA YOUR show.