The International Amateur Radio Union Region 3

 ITU TELECOM Asia 2000 

 at Hong Kong, Monday 4 to Saturday 9 December, 2000 

The IARU Region 3 Directors met at Darwin on 2 September 2000 following the IARU Region 3 Conference. The Directors decided to establish an IARU stand at the TELECOM Asia 2000 event, to be at Hong Kong from 4 to 9 December 2000. IARU has a long history with presentations at these TELECOM events in all Regions. The ITU had recently advised IARU that changes had been made to the cost for an IARU stand at ITU TELECOM events. 

Further discussions resulted in ZL2AMJ attending the event to assist the local IARU society, the Hong Kong Amateur Radio Transmitting Society, HARTS, to set up and to staff and run the IARU stand. 

The IARU Region 3 Secretary sent a letter to all member societies of IARU Region 3 seeking material for display at Hong Kong to support the promotion of Amateur Radio and of IARU. 

This is a report about the IARU stand at the ITU TELECOM Asia 2000 event. It is deliberately extensive so that many aspects and experiences about this project are recorded for reference at the time when the next similar event is planned.

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2. An Overview

ITU Telecom Asia 2000 was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, HKCEC, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. Four very large halls were used. In addition there were stalls in the atrium, the concourse, and in sundry other spaces in the building. 

The exhibition was open daily from 1000 hrs to 1800 hrs for the six days from Monday 4 December to Saturday 9 December 2000. The IARU stand was staffed for this entire period. 

The ITU has advised that there were more than 500 exhibitors and 23,000 square metres of exhibit space, with 50,000 visitors. It was the biggest TELECOM Asia exhibition ever. 

Further details about the event itself can be found at the ITU web site at:

http://www.itu.int/ASIA2000/flash_homepage.html

and at the Hong Kong government's site: 

          http://www.asia2000.gov.hk/splash_flash.html

These URLs lead to press and other releases describing the event. It is assumed that the ITU will revise their page and that it will continue to exist! 

The IARU stand was in Hall 3, above Halls 1 and 2. The other hall, Hall 5, was in a separate part of the complex. (It is not known what happened to Hall 4!)  More stalls were in connecting parts of the building, the Atrium and the Concourse. 

The IARU stand was well sited, near to the USA and to the UK pavilions. The IARU stand had frontages on to two walkways. It is best described as a short but wide "tunnel" with its entrances opening to the two walkways. It was not easy to photograph! 

The stand could be approached from four directions. This had advantages in that it increased the pedestrian traffic flow past the stand, but it also meant that ideally four sets of eyes were required to observe and to prepare for approaching visitors! 

The purpose of the stand is to promote Amateur Radio and the IARU to people. So the double-entrance feature should be viewed as a decided advantage irrespective of the resulting problems with equipment security and the reduced wall-space for displays. 

The East Wall of the IARU stand with (left to right) Mr Zhu Sanbao of the Regulatory Department of the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China, Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ, and Mr Zhao Mingyu, President of the Chinese Radio Sports Association.  Photo: VR2ZST

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 3. The name panels at the stand

The name of the stand was shown as: Int'l Amateur Radio Union (IARU) in white lettering on blue background on a panel above the entrance to the "tunnel". It was the same on both sides of the stand. These name-panels were parallel with and facing the walkways above the entrances. 

The word "International" in these signs was abbreviated by a limitation placed on the number of characters that could appear in an exhibitor's name on these signs. This is a requirement of the TELECOM organisers. 

With so much of each blue panel remaining unused, it seemed to be an unnecessary limitation. IARU appeared to be the only exhibitor in the exhibition with such a long name and caught by this limitation. This matter seems to be worthy of discussion with the organisers of the next event to try to negotiate an exemption. 

The blue name-panels were very high above an approaching visitor's eye level. Because the panels were parallel with the walkways, the name panels were oblique and too high to be effective. The hall lighting was such that the name panels were not prominent. 

One entrance to the stand (taken before some pictures were mounted on the wall). Photo: ZL2AMJ

Fortunately some A4-size laser-printed black-on-white "notices" had been prepared prior to the event to act as possible "wall-fillers" in case there were large areas of blank wall-space remaining after the available display material had been mounted. The stand had limited wall space for hanging pictures and other displays but all the available items were put on view. There was very little unused wall space but these prepared "notices" were put to good use for a different reason. 

When approaching the stand from any of the four directions, a visitor first saw the far wall of the stand. To advise the purpose and the name of the stand, the "notices" were placed in a cluster on the walls at this "point of first visibility". It worked. These eye-level notices were telling the approaching visitor the name and the purpose of the stand. 

Four different "notices" were used. Each was a white A4 sheet, landscape. The logo of the IARU was shown on one notice with the words "AMATEUR RADIO, The International Amateur Radio Union" alongside. The other three notices showed the logo of each IARU Region with the name of the Region. 

These notices may be useful at future TELECOMs to better illustrate and to advertise the stand. Each "notice" can be downloaded from here:  Notices  The files here now have the logos in colour in expectation of future possible use. 

This picture shows Mr Han Zhaofang BG1HZF of CRSA. Photo: VR2ZST

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 4. The display items  

Several IARU member societies gave support to the IARU stand and made contributions in response to the letter from the Region 3 Secretary. The items on display are listed at this page:   Display material   

The IARU International Secretariat provided hand-out pamphlets which were given away to anyone who called and who showed any interest in Amateur Radio. 

HARTS provided some explanation sheets about Amateur Radio in Hong Kong with an application form to join HARTS, in both Chinese and in English .  This material was useful on the last two days of the TELECOM when there is opportunity for local people to visit the exhibition. These two days were an opportunity for HARTS to promote local recruitment. 

This is a view of the West wall of the stand. The two frames from KARL about ARDF can be seen with the ARDF Yagi from CRSA and an earthquake disaster picture from JARL Photo: ZL2AMJ

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 5. Staffing the stand  

Staffing the booth was arranged on a day-by-day basis with the cooperation of HARTS. 

Paul Anderson VR2YRC the President of HARTS, with Stephen Tse VR2ZST, Yul Kwan VR2MY and Frank Barnhouse VR2/VE7RDO were in frequent attendance. Other HARTS helpers were Alan Lee VR2MQ, Paul Cheung VR2PC and Sunny Chan VR2XGE. 

From CRSA, Mr Han Zhaofang BG1HZF, all the way from Beijing, attended for long hours. 

Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ, Director/Chairman IARU Region 3 attended for the time the stall was open except when relieved for meal-breaks or for official duties elswhere. 

The wonderful support from HARTS and from CRSA at this event is sincerely appreciated. The linguistic skills of these amateur radio enthusiasts in various versions of the Chinese language enabled a better contact to be made with many visitors to the stand. Certificates are in preparation by IARU Region 3 to record appreciation to the workers at the stand.  Example

Yul VR2MC, Stephen VR2ZST, Fred ZL2AMJ and Han BG1HZF, just some of the helpers at the IARU stand. Photo: VR2ZST

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 6. Visitors

The visitors were many and from many countries. A "Guest List" was kept on a sheet of paper, a new sheet for each day, and visitors were asked to leave their name and other details. Some visitors escaped before their name was recorded. Business cards were swapped. Only one visitor (from overseas) could be classed as "objectionable", showing a lack of understanding by making silly statements about amateur radio, and fortunately he did not linger at the stand. All other visitors were pleasant to talk with and most showed a genuine interest in Amateur Radio and in IARU. A copy of the Guest List is being sent to the Region 3 Secretariat and to HARTS for the record.

Visitors were noted from: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, UK, USA, and Vietnam. 

On one occasion there were 15 people counted at the IARU stand. This was at 1730 hrs on one evening when a group of HARTS members arrived after their day at work. The neighbouring exhibitors were mystified by this influx - they had no visitors at this time! 

Of particular importance are the Regulatory visitors from Administrations and visitors from ITU. A selected list of some of these visitors is at:   Visitors   

After the official TELECOM Opening Ceremony, on the Sunday afternoon prior to the first open Visitors' Day, the participating ITU top officials were to make a visit to the exhibits. It was recognised as impossible in the one-hour allocated for this VIP visit to visit more than a few selected stands because of the sheer size of the event. It is not known which stands were finally selected. These top officials were not observed in any part of the exhibition area during the whole 6-day event. 

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 7. Official duties

The TELECOM Opening Ceremony was attended by ZL2AMJ. It was spectacular. It was held on Sunday 3 December and featured large television display screens with performers in London, New York and Hong Kong singing in unison. They were followed by dancers, Chinese dragons and a dramatic pyrotechnic display - real fireworks inside the hall! The ceremony was officiated by Bangguo Wu, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, the host country of ITU TELECOM ASIA 2000, Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the ITU, and Chee Hwa Tung, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. A keynote speech was also given by Richard Li, the Executive Chairman of Pacific Century CyberWorks, the sponsor of the Opening Ceremony.

On the next day, the "Telecom Leaders Round Table" lunch was attended by ZL2AMJ and the afternoon working session of the same group by the HARTS President VR2YRC.

The Closing Party for the principal exhibitors (CEOs) was held on the Friday evening, the final day being the following day, Saturday. This function, attended by ZL2AMJ, was held at the Cafe Deco at the Peak Galleria, at The Peak. It was hosted by the Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was very crowded event, standing room only. 

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 8. The size of this TELECOM

The TELECOM Asia event has rapidly increased in size. There were more than 500 exhibitors at this Hong Kong exhibition. So the effectiveness of only one stand for exposure to visitors is decreasing.  With 500 stands, a visitor who spends one minute at each stand would take more than 8 hours to see the whole exhibition. This huge size and the effect of its proportionally-decreasing exposure to visitors were of concern to some of the commercial exhibitors. 

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 9. Business cards

Each participating attendant at the IARU stand should have a personal business card. A business card today should also give an email address and the URL for a web page. 

The listing of a personal web page URL on the business card brought surprise and led to several interesting conversations. ZL2AMJ estimates that about 200 of his cards were given away.  

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 10. Follow-up after the event

As a result of the personal web page URL being entered on the business card, email messages seeking further information and referring to the page have been received by ZL2AMJ since the TELECOM closed. This avenue was not expected. 

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 11. The purpose of the IARU stand

There are probably many claims to what the purpose of the IARU stand is, or should be. Whatever words are used, the  IARU stand is to promote IARU and to promote Amateur Radio exposure to the world and to persons in the ITU fraternity in particular. 

It is easy for this aim to be clouded. Amateur Radio has many facets. A live on-air HF station operating at the IARU stand was suggested several times. Such a station has been avoided and it is believed that the correct decision was made. There are good reasons to avoid an HF station quite apart from the obvious electrical and acoustic noise problems, the difficulties of establishing a suitable antenna, and the possibility of interfering with other exhibitors. 

A live HF station requires constant attention from its operator. That diverts staff attention away from what is seen to be the prime purpose of the IARU stand, namely, to meet with, and to talk about Amateur Radio, with visitors. 

For future TELECOMs, it is recommended that a live on-air HF station should be avoided. 

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 12. The furniture at the stand

A small table and two fold-up chairs were found at the stand. This seems to have been the basic ration that was ordered or which came with a stand of this type. 

In the true amateur radio spirit, when the event closed, we had a total of five chairs and had acquired a desk, two stands with lock-up cupboards, and another stand that was used for the computer monitor. 

Some other exhibitors with limited space made furniture available to us that they could not use with their displays. On a walk back to the stand during the setting-up days, two pieces of furniture were found on one of the walkways. Someone had stuck a piece of paper on each with the words: "Not wanted". Both were promptly carried to the IARU stand and used! At no time was a stock-take of furniture by the TELECOM organisers evident! 

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 13. Dress

As usual at these events, the dress at most stands was a dark suit with a long-sleeved shirt and tie. 

Some stands had dressed their staff in "corporate T-shirts". With their firm's name and logo tastefully displayed on the front and back, there was exposure of this information throughout the exhibit halls when moving around the hall and going to and from the stand. There appeared to be no "rules" against this free promotion. This dress should be considered for future IARU events. 

The crowd milling about the walkways are a concentration of people who should be receiving the IARU message and with such a minimal cost involved, this may be a promotion opportunity lost. Wearing IARU T-shirts should be considered for the next event. 

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 14. The hotel

The following URL, recommended by the HARTS President,  leads to a map of Hong Kong from which hotels can be selected. One was required within walking distance of the TELECOM venue:

        http://www.hkcitymap.com/eng/ie.htm 

The Century Hong Kong Hotel in Wanchai was selected and the travel agent was asked to make a booking. A "corporate rate" was requested. For the 9-day stay, this resulted in the rate being pay-for-7-days, with two more days free. All meals were extra. 

The hotel was a very satisfactory choice and it is recommended for use again should a hotel near to the HKCEC be required. A 24-hour 7-Eleven store is across the road from the hotel. Hong Kong is not the inexpensive place that it used to be. 

There is an elevated covered walk-way, starting from outside this hotel and going to the HKCEC. Walking this route takes about 10 minutes and avoids traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, and heavy traffic. 

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 15. Daily incidents

Arrival day - Friday 1 December: Arrived at hotel and got to bed at 10.30 pm, 24 hours after getting out of bed at home to make the journey.  

The first setting-up day - Saturday 2 December: Phoned Paul VR2YRC at 0930 hrs, agreed to meet later in the day. Visited HKCEC. Collected badge/smartcard/bag,/papers/etc from the ITU Registration Office. Located the IARU stand at 1015 hrs. It was a mess. Was being used for storage for materials for distribution to other stands. Set about laying claim to what was useful to the IARU stand - table, two chairs, bookstand/display stand. Got all else removed. Cleaned up the off-cuts of plastic, wire, wrapping material and rubbish that covered the floor. Made contact with the neighbouring exhibitors who were doing similar things. The stand was found to be twice the size of some of the neighbouring stands on the UK pavilion. Viewed the wallspace and decided the layout for additional signs ("notices") and for the items for display. 

Met Paul VR2YRC at 1620 hrs. Carried display material from where his car was parked to the stand. Commenced unpacking. Purloined two pieces of furniture found on a walkway and labelled "Not wanted". 

Finished at stand at 2000 hrs and walked back to the hotel. Met Bob Jones and his XYL on the way, had a chat and swapped experiences. 

The second setting-up day - Sunday 3 December: Purchased string, sticky tape and an electrical distribution box (for the computer display) on the way to the HKCEC. Arrived at stand at 1000 hrs. Very quiet - no sign of neighbouring stallholders. Cleared floor, hung pictures, repositioned furniture. Returned to hotel for lunch. Met Paul and Stephen back at the stand. 

Attended Opening Ceremony 1430 hrs. Impressive light/noise/fireworks/dancing girls display. Attended evening meal and entertainment for CEOs at 1730 hrs at the HKCEC, sitting at a table with Iranian business people. 

The first Visitors' day - Monday 4 December: Send report by fax to Keigo for onward despatch to Region 3 Directors. Activity at the stand before lunch is low. Have lunch with the "Telecom Leaders Round Table" group. Paul attends the afternoon session of this group. 

The second Visitors' Day- Tuesday 5 December: Mr Han BG1HZF of CRSA arrives and assists at the stand. He brings pictures and ARDF equipment for display. Pictures from SARTS arrive (were printed in Hong Kong). Many photographs of the stand taken. Evening meal at Kowloon "London Restaurant" as the guest of some HARTS members. 

The third Visitors' Day - Wednesday 6 December: Many DX visitors. A cellphone disappears from a neighbouring stand. 

The fourth Visitors' Day - Thursday 7 December: Bob Jones (of ITU) visits the stand. 

Evening meal at a restaurant in Causeway Bay hosted by HARTS with Mr K S Wong of OFTA and others as Honoured Guests . Photograph

The fifth Visitors' Day - Friday 8 December: The first official public day for "locals". Meet Mr Wong of OFTA again, at a cafe. Attend the Farewell Party at the Peak. Very crowded and noisy. Meet an ITU representative stationed in Bangkok, Dr Arthur Morse. A long and continuing train of discussions began regarding the training of Regulators/Administrators and distance education.  

The sixth Visitors' Day - Saturday 9 December: The second day for the locals and the final day of the event. Start closing down and packing up after 1700 hrs as others in the same hall did the same. HARTS agree to recover all equipment and despatch back to the country and society of origin. 

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 16. Some observations

• A cellphone would have been useful to assist coordination with HARTS members. 

• The importance of the inclusion of the local society in these events cannot be over-estimated. The language skills and local knowledge are essential. . There is opportunity for promotion of local Amateur Radio during the two public days. 

• A young lady was seen videotaping selected stands. She had a shopping list of stalls to visit. Industrial espionage? 

• Most people know little about Amateur Radio. Some visiting amateurs expressed surprise to find a stand devoted to Amateur Radio. 

• A printed "Press Release" about Amateur Radio would have been useful. This should be printed in a style suitable for a reporter to immediately use, and on diskette too. There was opportunity to provide this but one could not be gererated in time to meet the opportunity. 

• Reference material on a wide range of Amateur Radio topics is needed at the stand: 

  ARRL provided copies of recent books. These were frequently referred to to answer questions from visitors or to make a point. For example, a visitor fron OFTA (Hong Kong) asked about the New Zealand LF band, 165 to 190 kHz. The ARRL Antenna Book and the NZART CallBook were used to address this matter. His problem was the possibility of interference to Mainland China and to Macau if the band was allocated to amateurs in Hong Kong. Reference to the ARRL Antenna book answers this question nicely. Amateurs in Hong Kong will be lucky if they are heard in Macau! 

  A chart giving the frequencies proposed for the P3-D / AO-40 satellite when it completes its tests was of interest to some visitors. 

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 17. Recommendation- the next event

The next TELECOM Asia is scheduled for the Asia-Pacific region in the year 2002. At this time of writing, December 2000, the venue has not been announced. 

Based on the TELECOM Asia 2000 in Hong Kong, a stand representing IARU must be included in the next event. Planning should start as soon as the venue is announced. 

Back to Contents                                                                 Enquiries to:  Fred ZL2AMJ 

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