January-2019-EXHIBITS-Magazine

IEIA IN 2018
Reciprocity deals
The association expanded its global collaborations by
signing eight more International Reciprocity Agreements
at the IEIA Open Seminar’ 2018. These were signed by
IEIA with exhibition industry associations from various
countries, including CENTREX (Central East Europe), AFE
(Spain), KEOA (Korea), IELA (Switzerland), RUEF (Russia),
SAACI and AAXO (South Africa) and SBE (Poland).
International partner’s meet
A roundtable meeting was organised on May 9 in
Hyderabad for the international partner associations
of IEIA. It was held to discuss the agenda for achieving
synergies and building cooperation among the partner
associations for the growth of the members of IEIA and
other partner associations. The meeting was attended
by representatives of 15 international associations from
various countries.
GED Award
IEIA won the GED Award under the ‘Biggest Scale Physical
Activity’ category. The GED India campaign was led by Mr
Max Fernandes, Executive Committee member of IEIA.
GED awards were organised by UFI along with UK-based
‘Exhibition World’ to reward and acknowledge the best
activities around Global Exhibitions Day’ 2018 on June 6.
IEIA also launched the first GED India awards, supported
by UFI. Several members from across the country
participated in the GED 18 celebrations and an array
of activities were organised to mark GED in India. The
association recognised the best activities in various
categories and awarded the winners in all the categories.
concerns staring at the exhibition industry. Matters such
as GST, single window clearance, inclusion in Champions
sector and financial support for organising world-class
exhibitions in India were raised at the meeting.
Initiative on Mumbai
Following the sudden notification issued by the Brihat
Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to ban the hosting
of exhibitions at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, IEIA
initiated steps to represent the concerns faced by the
industry in Mumbai, which was done with an objective
to support the interests of the exhibition industry and
advocate for government support.
A consultative roundtable meeting was held at BEC,
chaired by Mr Max Fernandes, EC member, and headed
by Mr Bhupinder Singh, Honorary Secretary, IEIA. A
representation is now being made to the Chief Minister
of Maharashtra with the involvement of Maharashtra
Economic Development Council (MECD).
Advocacy campaigns
In order to support the interest of the exhibition industry
in India, which is an integral part of the MICE sector, a
delegation from IEIA, comprising Mr Ravinder Sethi (Vice
President), Mr Gaurav Juneja (EC member), Mr Vipul
Agarwal (EC member) and Ms Nidhi Sharma (Executive
Director), met Ms Rashmi Varma, Secretary-Tourism.
Another IEIA delegation comprising Mr Gaurav Juneja (EC
member) and Ms Nidhi Sharma (Executive Director) met
Ms Sangeeta Saxena, Director, Department of Commerce,
and Ministry of Commerce, to draw the department’s
focus on the Indian exhibition industry.
Representation to GoI
IEIA took a significant initiative for the progress of the
Indian exhibition industry, by way of representation to
the Government of India (GoI) to include the exhibitions
sector in the list of champion sectors. An IEIA delegation
comprising Mr KV Nagendra Prasad (President), Mr
Bhupinder Singh (Honourary Secretary) and Ms Nidhi
Sharma (Executive Director), met Mr Suresh Prabhu, the
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation.
A detailed report on the challenges faced by the sector
has already been submitted to the Union Ministry of
Commerce, which gave a positive assurance to resolve
the issues and concerns.
IEIA approaches SEPC
Mr KV Nagendra Prasad, President of IEIA, met the
Director General of the Services Export Promotion Council
(SEPC), Ms Sangeeta Godbole (IRS) to represent the
‘Meet in India’
In order to promote India as a preferred exhibition and
MICE destination, IEIA has spearheaded the ambitious
‘Meet in India’ campaign on the lines of ‘Make in India’.
The association is developing a portal for promoting the
campaign, which will be a repository of all information
related to exhibitions and trade shows held in the country.
Various trade bodies are being invited for endorsing this
campaign across the country.
Representation on GST
The IEIA has submitted a representation to the GST
Directorate, Ministry of Finance, for streamlining of GST
related concerns faced by the industry. Ms Nidhi Sharma
(Executive Director, IEIA) met Mr Yogendra Garg, Additional
Director General- GST, to submit the representation with
positive hearing and consideration of the concerns faced.
JANUARY | 2019
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