EXHIBITION COMES TO SINGAPORE

The World Magazine Marketplace exhibition, which took place in London last December, will be held in Singapore this year. The reason is that publishers from around the world want to target Asia, and South East Asia in particular, because they see it as an exciting area for potential development. By holding the exhibition in Singapore it is expected to make it easier for SE Asia-based publishers to attend.
I was the only Thai publisher with a booth at last year's event, and I can certainly vouch for the fact that publishers want to get their titles into this region. I spoke to many, many publishers and we're still in discussions with two as a direct result of contacts made there.
My personal view is that holding the exhibition in Singapore isn't going to have the dramatic effect the organisers think it will. It will still be expensive by Thai standards to attend, even though the prices haven't been set. Singapore is an expensive city, and my argument is that if a publisher is serious about developing licensed publications then they will travel anywhere. Also, from my own experience, very few Thai publishers have the ability and knowledge to know what is required, and even fewer adopt the international standards that would be expected and demand by partners. It's all about quality rather than quantity.