Asian Sky Quarterly 2021 Q3

EDITOR’S NOTE
How do you measure the success of a
new business event? One way to do it
could be to count the attendees and
how engaged they were. Or, before the
event ends you could hand out surveys
asking people for their opinions. Whilst
both ways have their merits, the only real
way you can measure how successful a
business event was, is to see how much
business was actually done there.
It would be fair to say that the very first Asian Sky Group Virtual
Exhibition & Conference (ASGVEC) got off to a pretty rocky start.
Within the first few minutes of the event starting, almost 1,000 people
tried to simultaneously login to the system. This unfortunately caused
the servers to crash, and people were unable to login. That night, we
worked alongside our partners to fix the issues and roll out a new
version of the platform, and by the start of Day 2, almost all of the
issues were ironed out.
One of the questions asked about business opportunities during
the event. After cleansing the data, we found out that five different
companies said that they would conclude a deal because of the event.
On top of that, one OEM said it was in active discussions with two
sales prospects they met during ASGVEC, with one being particularly
impressed with how the OEM was embracing new technology by being
an exhibitor at the event.
For any event, let alone the first time an event has been run, that is an
impressive number of deals. You can read more about the event by
checking out our special feature on page 44.
The big feature this issue is an interview with Charles Fabrikant. Often
spoken about in the same breath as Warren Buffett, Charles is perhaps
most known in the shipping industry with his SEACOR company. He
has however served on the board of some of the biggest helicopter
operators around the world and is part owner of Asian Sky Group and
Asian Sky Media.
That does not mean that Day 1 was a failure. Walking virtually through
the exhibition halls late in the evening very much resembled the end
of day scenes at an ABACE, EBACE or NBAA, with booth parties, and
people hanging out talking to each other. And that’s exactly what the
main purpose of ASGVEC was – to connect people virtually in a way
that felt natural and comfortable.
Days 2 and 3 were much smoother, barring some unfortunate
sound issues. The conference session that closed the event was
appropriately enough about using technology, including 3D virtual
technology, in business aviation.
But, back to that question at the beginning: How successful was the
event? Well, shortly after the event finished, we sent out a survey
to all attendees, asking for feedback. The survey itself was fairly
straight forward and asked a series of questions about any issues the
attendees had, and other questions about what times the event was
held etc (If you attended the event then you will have been emailed the
results from the survey).
Elsewhere in this issue Asia’s biggest operator Sino Jet talks us
through the difficulties and challenges that it, and other operators, face
whilst taking delivery of a new airplane during the COVID-19 pandemic,
and Metrojet Engineering Clark gives us all the details and pictures of
its newly inaugurated maintenance hangar and associated facilities in
the Philippines. IADA, the International Aircraft Dealers Association,
celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and talks us thorough its
journey from formation through to today, whilst our aircraft spotlight
focused on the upcoming Dassault Falcon 6X.
Rounding off this edition is all of the usual hard data and intel that you
have come to rely on us for. We would like to thank everybody that has
contributed, but especially AMSTAT , Global Jet Capital and WingX.
Sincerely,
Alud Davies
Media & Communications Director
Asian Sky Group | Asian Sky Media
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS:
2 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY — THIRD QUARTER 2021