Brags, Threats and Money
In 2011, the two big shows were held in Paris and Dubai. In the post-show summary, the Paris Air Show reported 2,113 exhibitors, 346 chalet units, 290 official delegations from 82 countries, 3,200 accredited journalists and a total of 360,000 visitors including trade. 150 aircraft were on static display and 40 flew during the week. The autumn show in Dubai paled in comparison, clocking a mere 960 exhibitors from 50 countries, 1,452 local and international journalists and 56,548 trade visitors.
The big show of 2012 was the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA). Despite having only 1,506 exhibitors from 39 countries, it got the footfall of 109,000 trade visitors, 80 military delegations from 46 countries and 13 delegations from the civil sector. The Singapore Air Show on the other hand managed 900 exhibitors from 50 countries, 872 journalists, 44,801 trade visitors and 274 official delegations from 70 countries. The websites of these shows, run by show organisers, rate the success of their shows by the value of business transacted, contracts announced or signed. For instance, the FIA website lists the business conducted at Farnborough at USD 72 billion. The Dubai Air Show website claims to have managed orders and agreements to the tune of USD 63 billion. They proudly post these statistics on their websites as sales strategies for future growth. India, however, is a different ball game altogether. The 9th edition of Aero India was declared a success by the defence minister on the inaugural day of the show. With about 650 exhibitors of which 350 were foreign companies (interestingly, even on the day of the inauguration, the statistics were an approximation and not accurate), defence minister A.K. Antony called Aero India 2013 one of the biggest shows in the world. World? Asia? South Asia? Or the Indian sub-continent?
As far as business is concerned, traditionally nothing happens at Indian defence and aerospace shows. No orders are placed and no high-profile contracts are signed. Like a traditional village haat (fair), Aero India gives an opportunity to Indian small and medium enterprises to showcase their capabilities to the global giants, intent on selling their hi-tech wares to India, so that they may be enlisted as a cog in their supply chain. This is not to point out the pygmy stature of Aero India. Each Show has its own life, character and purpose; and Aero India certainly has its own. In fact, for a country that does not have an independent defence manufacturing industry, to have a show of the magnitude of Aero India is indeed a miracle.
But a bigger miracle is that despite the absence of news at the Show, anybody and everybody, who can read and write, brings out show dailies. At Aero India 2013, there are nine publications bringing out Show Dailies or (to get the semantics correct) Daily Show Specials; this includes at least two daily newspapers who have jumped in the fray for a slice of the Aero India pie and are bringing out daily specials. Ironically, even at the biggest international shows, despite the numerical strength of the exhibitors and visitors, only a handful of publications, rarely more than three, bring out Show Dailies.
In India the ministry of defence and its appointed show organiser (either CII or FICCI) realised a few shows earlier that bringing out a show daily is a money-making opportunity for defence/aerospace publications and therefore cannot be allowed without the ministry’s pound of flesh. Junking the traditional practice of bartering exhibition space with the magazines in exchange for carrying show advertisements, the organisers started selling the exhibition stand to the publication at the market rate, in addition to charging a royalty for the privilege of bringing out Show Dailies. To maximise profits from this enterprise, two categories were created to bracket media partners as official and supporting depending upon the amount they paid to the MoD. Since money became the only determinant, editorial quality was given a short shrift.
This year, FICCI appointed one official media partner and four supporting media partners. To give value for money to the official media partner for having paid more than the supporting partners, certain exclusive areas of distribution were earmarked for it. FICCI assured everyone that only those who paid would be allowed to distribute their Show Dailies.
However, by Day 2, it was obvious that either FICCI has failed completely to enforce its diktat or has colluded with those who distributed daily specials without paying for them. The fact that these dailies (Aeromag Asia and Geopolitics) are being distributed openly, latter seems more likely. But the shame of the show does not lie in this sort of reprehensible operations. The shame lies in the manner in which the ‘key sole official media partner’ which has an aggressive fist as symbol of its status on its website, tried to wrest advertising from exhibitors through threats. Things came to such a pass that a few exhibitors threatened to report the company to the organiser for harassment. Only threats countered threats.
In his press conference, defence minister A.K. Antony thanked the media for projecting the show in a positive light thereby attracting the global vendors. One wonders which image of the Show is he grateful for; because a show that runs only to make money for the organisers can neither be great, nor successful.
Aero India 2013 is high on claims, low on substance