Strong magnet for the international business

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The aquatics fair has moved from its previous venue, Singapore Expo - located some distance outside the city - to Suntec Singapore, situated right in the heart of the city's business district. To the immense credit of the organisers, CMP Asia Trade Fairs Pte. Ltd., the transfer was negotiated with great success and professionalism. Suntec Singapore is undoubtedly a very good venue for Aquarama, being located so close to major hotels, shopping centres and so on. It is therefore not surprising to learn that so many of this year's exhibitors have already reserved booths for Aquarama 2009, which will be held at Suntec on 28-31 May 2009. As ever, Aquarama '07 proved to be a strong magnet for trade and public visitors alike. In total, there were nearly 5 000 trade visitors, 66.5 per cent of whom were from overseas. No fewer than 68 countries were represented in this percentage, emphatically confirming the international nature of the event. This internationality was also reflected in the exhibitors themselves, with 70.71 per cent of the total 200 or so being made up of foreign companies. The number of countries represented by overseas exhibitors was 26, among which were some perhaps somewhat unexpected representatives, such as Colombia, Namibia, Pakistan and Poland. Public attendance, which was of course predominantly domestic, was also very encouraging, with almost 18 000 visitors recorded over the 11/2 days that the event was open to the general public. Equipment selection The selection that follows constitutes a small fraction of the numerous products that were on display at this year's Aquarama. In general terms, I was very impressed with the wide range of products, fish, invertebrates, plants and services displayed at Aquarama 2007. Virtually anything you could think of was there, although on this occasion I didn't see any futuristic tanks containing artificial 'creatures', rather than live ones . as was the case in 2005. This year, apart from the tank accessories and decorations, many exhibitors (even those displaying equipment) included live animals in their displays. I didn't carry out a detailed count of such exhibits, but the overall impression I got was that there were more live organisms on show at Aquarama 2007 than at any of the preceding shows. The development of the nano aquarium concept over recent years was very much in evidence, with a larger number of companies than ever before…