Companies that participate in exhibitions organised by the Ghana Trade Fair Company (GTFC) have been urged to change their perception towards such events to enable them to derive the maximum benefit. The acting Director-General of the company, Mr E.E. Okpoti Koney, who gave the advice, said exhibitions, as the name depicts, are meant to showcase products and services of participating companies to the visitors and not to necessarily sell them on the spot. Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic, he said, “Exhibitors only need to display their products and devise pragmatic marketing strategies that will enable them to get visitors to contact them after the exhibition to patronise their products or services”. The advice is in response to some allegations by exhibitors that they are unable to make any sales at exhibitions and, therefore, they refuse to participate in the exhibitions organised by the GTFC and others. Mr Koney said efforts should be concentrated on making contacts with the visitors and following up on them to patronise their products after the show. He also said the GTFC had decided to take its exhibitions, fairs and bazaars to other parts of the country to offer companies in those regions the opportunity to display their products and services to the people in those areas. “From November 4 to 14, 2011, we are organising grand sales in the oil rich Takoradi in the Western Region to promote trade and industry in that part of the country,” he said. Dubbed “Grand Sales Takoradi – 2011”, the fair will create a wider enabling environment to facilitate the expansion of economic activities while enhancing the region's potentials to increase production, income and employment. Explaining the choice of Takoradi for the first show this year, Mr Koney said, “his trade exhibition is recognition of the fact that the Western Region abounds in viable economic activities,” he said. He said, the show will also offer businesses from all sectors of the economy including small, medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to showcase their potential to the increasing number of people from all walks of life who have made the region their new base because of the oil. Mr Koney urged the participants to come to the show with improved marketing skills that would enable them to sell their products and services to the teeming number of visitors expected at the show. He said from December 20, 2011 to January 2, 2012, the show would move to Koforidua to close the shows for the year. Mr Koney also revealed that there would be solo fairs in Accra such as the Agrifair and the China-Hube Exhibition.