Working a Chinese trade fair: what to do before, during and after

Before: build the shortlist, do not discover it

Exhibitor lists are published in advance. Go through them, pick the twenty stands you actually want, and map them by hall. The people who wander the aisles see a fraction of what the people with a route see.

Take a one-page brief: product, quantity, target market, any certification you need, and a photo or drawing. Hand it over rather than describing it. A specification survives translation on paper far better than in conversation.

Know your own numbers before you arrive. The first question a serious factory asks is quantity, and "we are still deciding" ends the conversation politely.

The exhibitor list is the shortlist. The fair is where you check it.

During: the questions that sort the room

Ask what else the line runs. A factory answers instantly and specifically — it is their equipment. A trader gives an answer that is either vague or improbably broad.

Ask for the business licence. Many stands have it on the wall or in a folder. The business scope settles the factory question on the spot, and asking for it at a fair is completely normal.

Ask about a tolerance or a material at the edge of your specification. "We would need to test that" is a good answer. "Yes, no problem" to everything is not.

Ask who else in your market they supply. Not for the name — for whether the answer exists at all.

During: what to record

Photograph the stand sign with the company name in Chinese. The English name on the card is marketing; the Chinese name is what the registry knows.

Write on the card, immediately, what you asked and what they answered. By the evening of day two, nothing is distinguishable from memory.

Collect the unified social credit code where you can. It is on the licence, and it is the only thing that makes a registry check possible afterwards.

A card without a note is a card you will throw away.

After: the week that decides whether the trip paid

Send the follow-up within three days, referencing the specific conversation. Every exhibitor is being emailed by everyone they met; the ones who get answered are the ones who remind the supplier which conversation this was.

Run the registry check on the shortlist before you request samples. It is cheaper to eliminate a company on paper than to wait six weeks for a sample from one that should not have been on the list.

Expect a filter rate. Twenty stands becomes six worth quoting and two worth sampling. That is a normal outcome, not a bad fair.

Which fair

The Canton Fair is the broadest and, for that reason, the most crowded with intermediaries. It is a good place to learn a category and a poor place to find a specialist.

Industry fairs are narrower and far denser in actual manufacturers. If your product has a dedicated fair, it is almost always the better trip.

Check the dates twice. Chinese fair dates move, and the ones we could not confirm are marked as provisional on the calendar.