Companies target their sales strategy for year around being a player in the field and getting their goods noticed.
In the specialised tech industry, international trade shows are crucial for doing business. "If you are launching a high-value manufacturing business whose customer base is overseas, this is the only effective way to announce yourself," says Southern Photonics chief executive John Harvey.
The engineering company, based in Auckland, was launched at an international trade show in 2002 and launched its spin-off company, Coherent Solutions, at the Optical Fibre Conference in March in Anaheim, California.
"Trade shows are where everything important is announced and everyone who is a player in the field is present. In fact, some companies target their whole sales strategy for the year around these shows," says Harvey, a retired University of Auckland physics professor.
The OFC launch gave the Coherent Solutions team, led by chief executive Andy Stevens, former operations chief of Southern Photonics, the opportunity to discuss the transition with customers. Coherent Solutions develops and manufactures test and measurement equipment for production, engineering and research teams involved in optical communications. The business has key products and technical skills in the field of coherent optical communications, which relates to new generations of data formats needed to support very high data rates.