Greetings from Singapore and Thailand

Singapore

As a company mentored by Digitális Jólét Nonprofit Kft., we have learned about the EU Business Avenues in South East Asia programme, financed by the European Union. In the frame of the programme EU-based companies can receive intense assistance in accessing the Asian market.

Out of the many applicants (applying from all over EU) only a few companies will be selected for the business support programme. It has been a great honour for us to be one of the companies with our product called SkyDreamCam that can take part in market access mentoring and take part in the exhibition at ConnecTech Asia in Singapore and Thailand. All incurring costs, with the possible exception of accommodation, will be supported by the programme’s budget.

Thailand

We were very pleased with the opportunity, as in addition to IT services, we also have the opportunity to promote our tourist webcam solutions in the Asian market.

The exhibition is still live during the writing of this post, so we could say that the above images were taken in our free time in the evening after the exhibition, but the truth is, the above images are just royalty-free photos, unfortunately.

Because COVID-19 intervened and the exhibition was held virtually. 

About the exhibition and the Business Avenues programme

In the frame of the Business Avenues program, they not only got us - in this case virtually - to the exhibition but before that they have provided various, very useful information via online training and a professional team worked on having the companies and government agencies that we marked on our wish list present on the exhibition.

This way, we could go to the exhibition with extremely serious potential, as the selected organizations were invited through the EU and the Hungarian embassy to the meetings and we could be present as one of the small number of mentored companies selected from the EU.

The meetings were properly organized, prepared and could be conducted online with the help of a very professional system.

The virtual exhibition hall

From here on, we would think that everything is up to us, but even in the meetings where we asked was the foreign economic attaché of our embassy present, supporting the success of the discussion.

For us, two meetings were the success criteria: to speak with the Thai and Singapore Tourism Authorities.

In the frame of our restart.travel programme, we have offered twenty-twenty SkyDreamCam camera and service, with the help of which we would like to introduce WebGarden to the Thai, Singaporean and Asian market.

 Our virtual experiences

 On the exhibition surface, we have the opportunity to see all the registered guests and we can also address them. If they like our short introduction, we can invite them to our virtual stand to discuss the possible cooperation via video conference or chat.

The EU pavilion

We are experienced exhibitors already. We love to travel and to exhibit. In the past, when we were physically there at an exhibition, we always came up with some creative ideas to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to do this here, everyone is merging into the crowd. There are chat rooms where you can invite people to the stand, but it isn’t as efficient as in real life. Unfortunately, we don’t feel the large crowd that used to be at such times.

At the end of the day, we get the list of people visiting or even just looking at the stand with contact and all the useful information. This is very important, as on exhibitions in the past it often happened that in the hustle and bustle we didn’t know with whom we have had a good conversation because we forgot to swap business cards or scan badges. Here, fortunately, it is automatic and helps a lot in getting in touch later.

That damn time zone

What one definitely faces in a virtual exhibition are those damn time zones.

Normally, if we go to the other side of the Earth, we get on an airplane, accompanied by a couple of fine red wines with the onboard entertainment system, then have a good sleep and we leave a day for the jet lag.

Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy with a virtual exhibition. As you are at home, you can’t get away from everyday life and suddenly you will be aware that you have to fit in two very distant time zones at the same time.

Here we have found the market gap. Maybe it would have been better to retreat to a room built on a hermetically sealed moving bench, where an airplane seat with an entertainment system is arranged and sometimes a fine red wine is served. Then after 14 hours of being inside, we would have moved to another room where we would have slept ourselves into the new time zone. Then, we could have gone to the exhibition freshly.

But seriously, this is worth reckoning with. If you don’t, it will be a serious effort being present in two different time zones at once.

Virtual vs. real

 COVID has taught us a lot. We could move to a home office, we have learned to take advantage of the IT infrastructure and we have also learned to exhibit virtually.

One of our eyes sheds tears, the other one laughs. He laughs because we don’t puff the sky full of harmful fuel vapor, we don’t spend endless money on traveling and hotels, and we can be home with our family and pets.

 The other one cries because we can’t meet our prospective client in person, which we believe is very important. We don’t feel the culture of a distant country, the scents of it, we don’t experience the completely different weather conditions and we can’t be a bit of a tourist on a business trip on the sly. We can’t drink lemonade or red wine or anything on top of Marina Bay Sands and we can’t eat fish ball soup at the market for breakfast. Instead, we sit in front of a computer and imagine all this while waiting for visitors to our virtual stand.

Our virtual stand

As a company dealing with digital solutions, we are happy to help other companies take advantage of the opportunities provided by technology, however - and we can certainly say on behalf of many companies and people - we are very much looking forward to the old, classic exhibitions and meeting opportunities.

We thank Digitális Jólét Nonprofit Kft. and the EU Business Avenues in South East Asia, the Hungarian Embassy in Singapore and Thailand, and the people behind these organizations and initiatives for this great opportunity. From now on, it is up to us to move on and we will do our best to get our services to as many places as possible.