The Exhibition Superpower Rising—Again
A report from Kai Hattendorf’s newsletter, Event(ful)!
The future of trade shows isn’t being quietly negotiated in back rooms—it’s being boldly staged in Shanghai. And if you want the smartest seat at the table, you should be reading Kai Hattendorf’s Substack newsletter, Event(ful)
.In his latest dispatch, the former UFI CEO-turned-global exhibition whisperer delivers the big picture: China’s not just back—it’s leading. With 3,844 exhibitions and over 155 million square meters of show floor space logged in 2024, China is officially one of the top three exhibition markets in the world, right alongside the U.S. and Germany.
But the numbers are just the beginning.
At a recent summit, Kai witnessed something symbolic yet telling: organizers replaced the traditional rectangular power table with a rounded one. A subtle but unmistakable signal—China isn’t jockeying for influence anymore. It’s hosting it. The stagecraft has become the strategy.
And the venues backing it?
NECC (National Exhibition and Convention Center): 1.47 million square meters—the largest in the world.
SNIEC (Shanghai New International Expo Centre): another 300,000+ square meters of sleek, global-facing infrastructure.
These are more than buildings—they’re instruments of soft power, calibrated to impress.
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