Pharma Expo 2003,CII's first exhibition on pharmaceutical sector held in Mumbai from November 14 to 17, did not excite many exhibitors at the end of the event, on account of low turnout of visitors. The exhibition at the NSE Grounds had participation from 158 exhibitors, both in the chemical and pharmaceutical segment. A good number of exhibitors who talked to Pharmabiz.com were not very happy with the event.

Many reasons were stated for their dissatisfaction. Some of them are low turn out from the pharmaceutical industry, a dull exhibitors profile, non-appreciation of small time exhibitors, low occupancy of exhibition space and another exhibition of herbal medicines at a nearby venue.

One of the exhibitors said: "An exhibition forms a good platform to generate more business. This can never be achieved if we are able to meet only few visitors from the industry, who form our clients."

"We were highly optimistic of the exhibition as Mumbai being the headquarters of major pharmaceutical companies. CII, being the major body representing industry could have done much more in bringing more industry centric visitors to our stalls," said an official from Sunjay Technologies.

"We spent about Rs. 2.5 lakh as our entire exhibition expenditure. However the returns are disproportionately lower. Even though the turnout at our stall was about 1,000, visitors, only 15 came with any business interest. The organizing committee could have invited more small time exhibitors, which would have generated more visitors and therefore more business," said an official at ANM Alliance, one of the major exhibitors at the exhibition.

An official from Chennai based Labmate India felt that the exhibitor profile was not bright, so was the visitor profile. The company was interested at only R&D and Quality Control specific visitors. But, only one out of every hundred visitors has been relevant to it. The company could make business deals with just 3 to 5 visitors.

One other reason for the low turnout at the CII show is the number of exhibitions being held in a single year, according to an official from the Associated capsules. He said that seven different organizers are offering seven different exhibitions in a year. The participants thus get choosy. He said that the only solution for this is to get the number of exhibitions reduced by organizers joining hands.

However some exhibitors found the CII event very satisfying. There were exhibitors who were present at the event just for brand building and promotion like V. Venkitachalam, MD, CVC Technologies Inc. "We participate in exhibitions as a part of brand building exercise and we are happy from the response we had in the last four days," he said.

"In the last four days, we received 400 visitors at our stall out of which 60 per cent had business potential," said an official from Gordhandas Desai Pvt Ltd. "We came here without any expectation. Out of the 300 visitors we had, 30 had some business interest," said an official at Precision Gears.