Shocking! 100,000 Attendees Expected at Shenzhen Medical & Health Expo Next April?

As wearable health devices such as the iWatch gain global popularity, the term “personal health management” has gradually become familiar to the Chinese public. In China, a country with a long-standing tradition of “preventive treatment,” concepts such as health preservation, wellness, and holistic regulation have always garnered more attention than therapeutic interventions. Consequently, ideas like “Internet + Health,” “smart healthcare,” “health management,” “intelligent elderly care,” “mobile health,” and “cloud health” have surged in prominence, prompting major internet companies and traditional pharmaceutical enterprises to actively enter the healthcare sector.

Corresponding to the industry’s vigorous growth, communication platforms are continuously being established. The 2nd International Medical Electronics and Personal Health Management Industry Expo (hereinafter referred to as the “Medical Health Expo”), scheduled to open on April 15, 2016, serves as a platform for suppliers, service providers, end customers, and other stakeholders to achieve win-win cooperation. It aims to build an integrated industrial ecosystem that brings together upstream hardware and app-based service platforms, demand-side entities such as hospitals, pharmacies, and health examination centers, as well as end users, investors, financiers, and media organizations.

Leveraging Experience as an “Innate Advantage”
With countless academic conferences, marketing events, and high-level forums held within the industry, why participate in trade shows? This is likely a question on the minds of many exhibitors.

A key point here is that, unlike some other industries, “mobile health management” places significant emphasis on customer experience, which aligns perfectly with the “inherent advantage” of exhibitions—their experiential function.

At last year’s healthcare exhibition, industrial companies and service providers rolled out their flagship offerings, showcasing product features and service highlights on-site while engaging in live interactions with clients and attendees. “We will host a series of events at the exhibition, leveraging new media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat to attract customer attention and foster effective engagement with visitors,” said Huang Yanwei, head of Yikang Shiji, Lepu Medical’s mobile health subsidiary, which exhibited last year.

Exhibitors’ marketing strategies are clearly closely tied to the trendy “Internet Plus” concept. Against the backdrop of the prevailing experience economy, industries across the board are pursuing business opportunities brought by “Internet Plus” and Online-to-Offline (O2O) models. Trade shows, to a certain extent, have realized O2O integration in the realms of publicity and media, adopting a precise communication model of “online promotion + physical product exhibition.”

The 2016 Medical and Healthcare Exhibition will feature four specialized sections: “Mobile/Smart Healthcare and Health Management,” “Home Medical Electronics,” “Smart Elderly Care,” and “Massage/Physical Therapy.” It is evident that each of these sections is closely tied to experiential marketing. Taking the “Massage/Physical Therapy” section as an example, the massage and physical therapy market has maintained an annual growth rate of over 10% in recent years, with products increasingly entering ordinary households. On-site experiences undoubtedly enable end customers to more quickly recognize product advantages and business opportunities.

Focus is the key; you can always find what you need.
At the exhibition, there are no mere spectators; everyone is a protagonist. “Based on our experience attending this event, its scale may not be the largest, but it is small yet refined and highly focused, making it easier for participants to identify their targets and find suitable partners,” said Shan Riqiang, Vice President of R&D at Neusoft Xikang Health Technology Co., Ltd., who has previously exhibited at the show.

A glance at the roster of exhibitors makes it easy to understand the experiences shared by the participants above. The 2016 Medical Health Expo attracted not only medical electronics manufacturers, mobile healthcare service providers, and O2O platforms, but also hospitals, health examination centers, health management centers, elderly care institutions, medical device distributors, chain pharmacies, consumer electronics distributors, gift companies, health supplement/pharmaceutical distributors, overseas buyers, media outlets, investment and financing institutions, and relevant government departments. Such a diverse lineup not only facilitates precise matchmaking between businesses and clients but also paves the way for peer exchanges and cross-industry collaborations.

“At the exhibition, we can see many merchants and manufacturers that complement our business. We are able to learn more fresh and advantageous practices, and collaborations among peers are often finalized during the event,” said Huang Yanwei.

Compared with academic conferences, marketing events, and forums, exhibitions serve a broader range of functions. They focus on vertical sectors, offering depth within professional systems while also providing breadth through the diverse roles of attendees.

Huang Yanwei pointed out that academic conferences are more targeted at professionals such as physicians, whereas trade shows facilitate the practical application of products, allowing customers and suppliers to reach cooperation intentions through face-to-face interactions. “For new product promotion and market launch events, we prefer trade shows.”

Shan Riqiang believes that marketing forums focus on media promotion, while exhibitions are geared toward identifying partners and future distribution channels, enabling a more effective search for potential users or suppliers of products and services. “In addition, the timing of this exhibition coincides with the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, making it more convenient for numerous merchants and customers to participate.”

The 2015 exhibition attracted nearly 200 companies, including Omron, Betai, Neusoft Xikang, Sinocare, Lepu Medical, I-Health, Breo, Fitibit, Fenda, Desay, Tsinghua Tongfang, and Hongbiao. In 2016, the exhibition scale will expand by 30,000 square meters, attracting more “Internet+” enterprises to participate and creating the largest-scale “Internet+” medical and health ecological economic circle!

To better leverage the advantage of “focus,” several parallel sessions at the 2016 Healthcare Exhibition are also highly appealing. A range of exciting programs are poised to launch, including the Summit on the Experience Economy in the Era of Internet-Plus Personal Health Management, the Investment and Financing Forum for the Wearable Medical/Mobile Healthcare Industry, the National Procurement Matchmaking Event organized by the China Elderly Care Association, the Awards Product Evaluation and Ceremony, the Runway Show for Exhibitors’ New Product Launches, and the Cocktail Party for Industry Executives.