Gulfood 2014 & How I Categorize The Visitors
Gulfood was held in Dubai this year from the 23rd till the 27th of February. And like every year thousands of suppliers, exhibitors and visitors from all over the world come to the show to meet old clients and seek new leads in their businesses.
Below is my short analysis about the visitors profiles (with a little sarcasm for some categories).
The catalog collectors: people who just go around all the exhibition halls to pick up every single catalog from all companies and after going home, most probably these will end up on the garbage, without mentioning the effort they put in place to carry them from hall to another.
The free food seekers: people who visit this exhibition or any other food related show just for the food they can get for free while strolling around the halls and end up sick because they eat more than their stomach can take, but simply because it is free.
The sample collectors: this category mostly attack on the last day of the show, but you can meet them everyday in the halls of the show, just dropping by and asking if any free samples are available to give away. the last day is catastrophic because of this category.
The bag collectors: 1 bag can take another 100 bags inside of it, these people have the hobby of collecting lots of bags, to be used on a later stage for different purposes and these can also be from the catalogs and samples collectors categories.
The Mobile Suppliers: different products suppliers who do not participate in the show, but come over as visitors and try to catch the maximum number of clients by going from booth to another and offering their services. At one point, they become very disturbing.
Price Shoppers: these are mainly traders and wholesalers who would like to buy specific products, but visit the show and move from a stand to another and try to make quick deals (which is not why such exhibitions exist), they stop at every booth for few seconds, ask about the price of a specific product and move on, always annoying visitors.
Smart Ass Businessmen: this is a funny category for me, because every time they enter any booth, most probably they are quickly spotted, because of their approach and the quality of questions they ask, losers and good luck for them.
The real businessmen: of course this is the category every exhibitor is seeking to meet during the show and there are plenty of them. Once they enter the booth, you can identify them because they behave differently and once the conversation starts, you can quickly tell they are serious and you would like to pursue business with them for the long run.
