Looking at the modern skyscrapers of Shanghai from a tour boat on the Huangpu River, it's hard to believe that China still is considered a developing nation. However, the permeation of bicycles as a major mode of transportation and street vendors selling fruit from baskets they carry using bamboo poles reminds one of the juxtaposition of this city, also known as the Paris of the East.
Our tour guide told us of a saying that goes something like this: If you want to see the last 100 years of China, you go to Shanghai; if you want to see the last 1,000 years of China, you go to Beijing.
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So perhaps it was fitting that contemporary Shanghai was the site of the 2008 China International Self-Service & Kiosk Show, or China Kiosk Show, for short.
The China Kiosk Show, in its second year, organized by Shanghai-based Tiansheng Exhibition Service Co., was co-located with the China Vending Show, which was in its fifth year.
The show featured more than 50 exhibitors, with about 25 percent in the kiosk business and about 75 percent in vending. But with touchscreens incorporated into vending machines and companies like MEI, ICT and JCM displaying components applicable to both kiosks and vending machines, the line between the two shows gets a little blurry.
Jiang Zhang and Chris Lian of Tianshen Exhibition Service Co. expressed their optimism of the future growth of the show's kiosk component. They said that kiosks still are fairly new in most of China, but that the government has shown support of kiosk technology as part of China’s bright future.
While it was the first time for the Self-Service & Kiosk Association to participate in the show, it was the third year for the Worldwide Vending Association and NAMA, the U.S. vending association.
During the 3rd China International Self-Service Summit, the conference portion of the event, Randy Parks of NAMA shared his tips for success in the vending industry to a packed room of about 100 people. Presentations during the Summit mostly were given in English, with Chinese interpretation. Since the interpretation was done by a woman sitting in the front row with a microphone, speakers had to pace their speeches in such a way to allow for translation.
Each kiosk exhibitor we spoke to told us that they sell their products globally or were interested in global sales, rather than simply focusing on the Chinese market, indicating that this was not just a show for Chinese buyers. While we met many companies from China, we also met exhibitors from Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"It has similarities and differences to the earliest shows we attended this decade," said Bob Fincher, an executive vice president of NetWorld Alliance (publisher of this Web site), who attended the show. "There is all the enthusiasm, there is all the innovation and the emotional commitment and momentum that we have ever experienced in the earlier days in the self-service and kiosk industry in the United States, in terms of the maturity of the technology and the quality and beauty of the exhibits. The kiosk and self-service industry in China has gone further and faster, and that the pace is quickening."
The China Kiosk Show will be held once again June 22-24, 2009, at Shanghai Mart.
Like the skyscrapers in Shanghai, climbing higher and higher, the kiosk industry in China also seems to be on its way up.
