in-cosmetics Asia 2012 breaks all records

"The pre-audited figures show that attendance has been approximately 5,598 through the doors, an impressive 45 percent up on attendance for the event last year and a figure that makes it by the biggest in-cosmetics Asia event ever," ​said Rahal in an exclusive interview with Cosmetics Design, during the event.

Appealing to an international audience​

Rahal also pointed out the fact that a concerted effort to appeal to an international audience had paid off, resulting in approximately 38 percent of the visitors being from outside the host country of Thailand, with a wide representation from the US and Europe, together with important countries within the Asia Pacific region, including South Korea, Japan and New Zealand.

"We worked to promote the event on a Pan Asian and international platform for the cosmetics and personal industry and those efforts have really paid off, as underlined by the much higher representation of international visitors at the event this year,"​ Rahal said

The international flavor has also been stressed with a number of additions to the country pavillions, which have included the biggest ever French pavillion, - a collection of ingredients and technology companies that dominated the show floor - together with the first ever Indian pavillion.

A more comprehensive seminar programme​

"We also set about developing a more in depth seminar programme that has been tailored around the information needs of the industry. With specific reference to this, we surveyed a number of companies to ask them about the sort of information they wanted to see in the program, and this resulted in a seminar specifically about the latest development for packaging in the region," ​Rahal said.

The workshop program also proved to be a success, with the organizers reporting that the vast majority of the programmes were sold out.

"In particular the formulation workshops were successful, reflecting the fact that formulation expertise is in demand in the Asia Pacific region. Likewise the natural and organic, together with the regulation workshops were very important."​

 Likewise, Mintel's innovation zone also proved to be an integral part of the event, with a bigger than ever area being used to highlight the latest ingredients and finished products, both from the Asia Pacific region, and worldwide.

Show set to expand in 2013​

On the back of the event, the show organizers believe that next year's event will be even more successful, both with respect to the area devoted to booth space and the number of visitors through the door.

"Each year we have witnessed an exponential increase in the size of the in-cosmetics show, and this year the growth has been particularly impressive,"​ said Rahal.

That growth has been particularly noteworthy this year in view of the fact that last year the event was impacted by flooding, which meant that the show had to be postponed by one month.

"Undoubtedly in-cosmetics Asia will be the event for ingredient and formulation professional in the region next year. In anticipation of this we are expanding the size of the event for 2013, increasing the floor space from two halls to three."​