With the objectives to extend the reach of Hong Kong designers or SME design houses in the Mainland market and to develop a business platform for them to communicate with manufacturers in the Mainland, several deliverables will be included in this project. Though there will be several deliverables, all of them will be associated with the exhibitions in the Canton Fairs with the support and collaboration with PDC (Canton Fair Product & Trade Production Centre).
PDC is established in 2011. It aims at providing an efficient service platform for closer cooperation between “World Design” and “Made in China”. (See Appendix 13 for the introduction of PDC and their services)
Canton Fair is held biannually in Guangzhou every spring and autumn since 1957. The Fair is a comprehensive fair and a major event in the China. It attracts more than 25,000 best Chinese enterprises and 200,000 buyers from all over the world. During the Canton Fair, PDC provides a “face-to-face” and “point-to-point” service platform for designers and enterprises through different activities such as Design Show, Design Forum, Matchmaking and Design Night, etc. Up to May 2015, there have been a grand total of over 525 design companies/organizations from 15 countries and regions participated in the PDC design exhibitions in Canton Fairs including Germany, U.S., Australia, U.K., France, U.A.E., the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Greece, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. PDC collaborates with individual enterprises as well as some association and government departments from different countries to bring in the designs or designers from different countries into Canton Fair. The fair will mainly include the exhibitors from Product Design discipline.
HKDTA participated in the Canton fairs in the past since Year 2013. Applying the funding support from the government in this project, it is targeted to setup a larger scale of Hong Kong Pavilion in the Canton Fair so as bring more Hong Kong designers to showcase their designs in the fair as well as to draw the buyers or public awareness of the excellent performance and professionalism of Hong Kong design industry. The Pavilion will showcase the successful design stories and some masterpieces that can demonstrate the features and uniqueness of Hong Kong designs so as to show to the manufacturers and buyers in Mainland about the strength of Hong Kong design industry which has solid understanding both Chinese culture and international trends.
The objective of PDC is to provide a platform for the cooperation between “World Design” and “Made in China”, whilst the objective of this project is to extend the reach of Hong Kong design in the Mainland markets, there is a perfect match in the collaboration. HKDTA will collaborate with PDC in some deliverables of the project such as the launching ceremony of the project, the setup of the Hong Kong Pavilions in two Canton Fairs, the business networking events, the design forums as well as other promotional activities. With the strong background and network of PDC, the project deliverables can be carried out more efficiently and effectively.
Besides exhibiting in Canton Fair and organising the business matching and networking events, another significant deliverable in the project is to create a Wechat and Weibo account so as to build a social platform for the publication of the project activities and news. It will also serve the purpose of uniting and gathering the group of people, mainly the Hong Kong designers or design houses and the manufacturers or buyers in the Mainland. Wechat and Weibo become the popular and the essential tools for doing business in the Mainland. The building of the platform can provide a communication channel and let Hong Kong designers to get exposure in Mainland as well as to provide a continual development platform during and beyond the project period.
With the collaboration with PDC and the building for social platform, the problems of Hong Kong designers and the objectives of the project can be addressed and achieved effectively. |
