Chinaplas - My Forever Memory:
"Chinaplas" project would probably be my forever memory of my serving in PCL. I joined PCL in August 1995. No sooner had I joined PCL, I was told that our then agent, ex-Horchst, would like to jointly participate Chinaplas with Polyplastics. I was assigned to take up this project. Only with less than 2 months' preparation time, we set off for this adventure in Beijing.

You could imagine that what China was like 14 years ago. I was so unprepared for what would have possibly happened. In addition, I was totally new in the plastics industry; I could only use my past Sales & Marketing sense on retail and hotel management to travel through this adventure. All the incidents incurred then were "cultural shock" to me. That was a journey full of excitement, yet with much frustration.

14 years have passed; I am feeling more comfortable and confident in what to do and what to except for exhibitions in China. Although there would still be quite a number of the unexpected and uncontrollable interludes every single time, my mindset is well adjusted for those "surprises" in life.

My Life as a One-Man-Band:
All these years, I worked alone for Chinaplas from the sketch till the show time! Such as the selection of theme, poster contents, booth design, application sample arrangements; coordination on man power, logistic; decide on literature, premium gifts, entertainment, meeting & interviews, press releases & media planning etc. There are so many tasks that I could not finish them all during working hours. So, it was a common scene that I worked until numerous midnights. At times, I worked at home and communicated with the designer by emails and phone calls in the middle of the night. The designer would wake me up like 3 a.m. and asked me to check my emails for the booth or posters design modifications comments. Then, we would keep calling each other back and forth for further modifications until dawn.

All Win Situation:
Not until 3 years ago, we have changed from this way to forming a committee. It does not only help to release my burden, but also let everyone to be part of the exhibition. Building a strong team spirit, collaborate everyone's mind are very essential to the success of any projects. By walking through the whole process together; giving everyone a chance to learn and contribute their best would make the whole event become more than a just a promotion or sales and marketing activity.

The committee includes a team leader and 2 sub-leaders who help to coordinate the whole project. We also appointed the other sales and technical staff to responsible for selecting poster themes and material collection according to each ability. During this process of identifying the target customers, application samples, new materials data etc., our staff would be able to learn more and discover more! We have regular meeting to updates everyone on the progress and difficulties that we might have. By putting our minds together, listening to everyone, some junior staff with low profile personality has become more active!

Tactical promotional tools

Passion of My Roles:
As you could see my role has evolved from one-man-band to management, and facilitator and educator. I honestly enjoy sharing my experiences and doing educational work. No matter how much change there may be, my role and my passion on design and corporate communication work have never changed!

Fast Fact on Chinaplas:
It is the 3rd biggest international plastics exhibition in the world, and it is the biggest in Asia. This exhibition has been running for 23 times so far. It used to rotate showcasing in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing. However, it only rotates between Shanghai and Guangzhou now. It has attracted almost 70,000 visitors every year from 130 plus countries/regions, and keeps expending each year.

My valuable experiences
I am Steven Duan from Polyplastics Guangzhou Branch, China. In this Chinaplas, I assisted Mr. Cliff to be the leader for this project. Although I was the sub-leader of Chinaplas 2007, as the leader this time was a new challenge to me.

When I was appointed as the Leader, I had some worries. I wondered if I could perform as expected from everyone. Now, when I look back, it is a very valuable experience for me.

I attended Chinaplas 2007, but I felt some difference this time. We tried to let more staff involve for the preparation work. We formed very strong teams for the selection of theme, poster contents of each application category (Auto, E/E, Industry, COC). They chose application samples according to their professional experiences. They also promoted the understanding of each application to all of us. Regardless the stricter policy on sample display from HQ this time (For example, customer written acceptance is required etc.), I think our South China team did a good job.

Chinaplas'09 completed in the end of May, but we have started the preparation job since July 2008. I have received much support and advice from many people within this period of time. I really appreciate everybody's guidance. Without their help, we could not successfully showed Polyplastics' good corporate image to the visitors.

I really enjoyed this memorable work and I have learned many experiences through this Chinaplas. I will remember it for a long time.

I am Long LIU from Polyplastics Shenzhen Branch, China. It is my first time to take part in Chinaplas. I was appointed as the sub-leader of this project. Chinaplas 2009 is a memorable experience for me.

Chinaplas is a huge "systematic" project, not only for the exhibition itself, but also the long term preparation works. We have taken almost 10 months to prepare the exhibition since July 2008. Everybody was assigned with responsibility according to their expertise and contributed a lot to it. We were involved in the whole process. There were several arrangements on theme selection, poster design, sample arrangement, booth design and setting, manpower arrangement, customer meeting & entertainment, etc. Without everybody's effort, we could not achieve the goal to present Polyplastics as the top engineer plastics manufacturer, and be able to obtain potential customers' attention as we planned.

As you know that this exhibition was run during the financial tsunami and also during the outbreak of H1N1 flu, yet there was overwhelming number of overseas visitors. Our staffs received them attentively and introduced Polyplastics to them enthusiastically. We have collaborated our goal, and understand that it is our responsibility to greet every potential customer.

I appreciate the support and cooperation from our team, and such a chance to enrich my experience in Polyplastics. With the experiences that I have gained this time, I believe that we can do even better next time.

I am Maggie, from Polyplastics Guangzhou Branch, China. It was the first time for me to join the Chinaplas 2009 since I have joined Polyplastics 2 years ago. I feel happy that I have contributed to this important event with my colleagues as one of the sub-leaders.
In the whole process, there are two points worth mentioning.

(1) The new slogan "Engineering Plastics Expert, Innovation Beyond Imagination".
This slogan was created by all the Southern China colleagues together. We adopted a very useful method - Brainstorming. With lots of discussions and fine tuning, we came up with an ideal slogan that best presents Polyplastics. In this kind of workshop, it generated a good atmosphere for everyone to speak out our ideas freely, boldly without any concern on who you are.

(2) I could feel our colleagues' passion and hard working spirit from the beginning. It is a very valuable part of Polyplastics' culture. I could feel it indeed for this event.

Finally, here, I hope that Polyplastics could keep on providing more new ideas and perfect products to our customers.