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  Action Sports Expo Asia will be held in Singapore

 

Last week, the producers of Surf Expo announced they were creating a brand new trade show for Asia that will take place April 13 to 15 next year in Singapore.

 

We caught up with Surf Expo Director Roy Turner, who was fresh off the plane from Singapore, to find out why they chose to launch the show there and what this means for brands doing or wanting to do business in Asia.

 

Why Singapore? Why not do it in China or elsewhere in Asia?

We have been working on this project for about a year and a half as we have been looking to expand, but didn’t want to force the market, especially since there’s been some crazy things with trade shows in the press. Everyone said you’ve got to go to China.

 

But after researching, we realized China is a difficult animal, even within its own borders. We realized if we did a trade show in China it would be exactly that — a Chinese trade show. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we also researched if we picked a place outside of China, the Chinese would travel there, and less people would be willing to go to China. Hong Kong was our second choice and we considered Bali as well as it is the home office for Asia/Pacific for a lot of the industry companies, like Quiksilver and more.

 

When you look at the economy and where business is done, the Singapore government has been really smart. They have minimal taxation. They incentivize companies to do business there. Work visas and entry visas are not a problem. They are really smart and they all speak so many languages and you have all that and an island culture that embraces the sports we are marketing to, so you can’t go wrong. We approached the government and they have embraced us with open arms and are working hand in hand with us.

 

I’ve heard people call Singapore the fashion mecca of Asia. What’s it like there?

The Marina Bay Sands

 

I just got back from there and the retail that’s done there is phenomenal. I remember traveling to New York City ten years ago and everyone had shopping bags from Prada and Gucci on their shoulders and it’s like that in Singapore every day. And the other thing is it’s beautiful. They are really concerned with the environment and even though they have limited resources because they are an island, they preserve green space, there’s not once piece of paper on the ground and it’s a really clean country.

 

I visited the hotel that we are hosting it, and the Marina Bay Sands is one of top five architecturally designed hotels in the world. It kind of reminds me of the buildings in Dubai. There are three big towers and it looks like there is a giant skateboard on top. That skateboard looking structure is really an infinity swimming pool that runs the entire upstairs, and it’s bigger than a football field.

 

I remember a few years ago they built a giant wakeboard park in the country and that even though skateboarding was small, some distributors were working with the government to build skateparks there locally. How is action sports embraced there now?

What’s great is that their government is really big on public parks and public green spaces for residents. Recently, they have built some phenomemol skateboard parks and they have built a huge infrastructure. One park is called East Park and in that same park, they have a public kiteboard launch area, and a huge cable park for waterskis and wakeboards. It’s all owned by the government. I think that’s one of the reasons they are really supportive of us coming there. They have already built the infrastructure and now they are trying to get the kids to embrace some of what we are showing.

 

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Is the action sports industry ready for this show and were brands asking for this?

We did our research and we have a multitude of brands behind us. Each brand has a different way of doing business over there, so the show is going to be a hybrid show for consumers, distributors and business to retail.

 

Some brands will want to go there to brand consumers directly. Some are trying to establish a distributor network in Asia, and some are using the show like we do in the states to show product direct to retailers. Pretty much all the major brand are interested, but we haven’t started selling booths yet.

 

Initial research and reaction from brands across the board, not just in surf, but skate as well, are interested. Wake is really interested because of all the cable parks there, as is kite and we really feel standup will be really big there also. They haven’t really seen standup yet, so being an island culture I think they are going to get really excited about it.

 

How will the show be structured?

Two days will be traditional business trade show days and one day will be open to the public. The events we usually have just at the trade shows will be open to the public. Things can change but that’s the plan for now, and we will run all the contests and demos throughout all the days in an open area, open to the public.

 

We are looking at music acts, a skateboard contest, wakeboard contest, and paddleboard contests. We hired Wingut to be an ambassador and he’s going to help guide us through the sports and be an ambassador.

 

How else will it be different besides geography and other obvious reasons from Surf Expo?

On a logistics standpoint we are trying to do a turnkey booth layout so that a small American skateboard company can just show up with samples.

 

How about getting samples through?

That’s the great thing about Singapore its going to be so easy – you don’t even need to get a work visa.

 

Also, one of the other things we did is negotiated with the Asian Dive Expo, which has been there for years and usually has 20,000 to 25,000 people or so attend their show. So by co-locating with another water related show, at the first year launch we will have achieved an easy critical mass of attendees.