The phrase often heard: “it’s been two years and a half since the pandemic began.” Yes, it is long enough, and people are being prepared for or adapting themselves to the (emerging) post-pandemic era (I am not going to discuss here if it has come / when it will come etc.). At the same time, companies return or restart presenting their commodities at expos onsite. It must have been tough years, as many of them weren’t able to participate in onsite events and/or were forced to adjust (or tried to adjust) to operating under ever-changing COVID restrictions, moving from offline to online. Yet, you recognize enormous energies from people and impressive senses of reality at scale when you visit those events onsite. It’s always interesting to see and learn new products and solutions that go live in the markets. Expos are great places to catch up with those state-of-the-art technologies that you may get involved as a translator.
In mid-September, I visited some of those expos in Tokyo to explore potential business opportunities. Visiting those places and marketing yourselves however need good strategies. Expos are not places for individual marketing in the first place. Honestly, I went there only to learn I didn’t have those strategies with me, so it’s my homework for next occasions. On the other hand, I think I did well in the long run, getting to know some people and giving them my business cards. One of my current steady clients remembered and gave me a call one day, when they happened to need both interpreting and translation services for their customers. You give your business cards, you send messages, you get no responses, that’s fine, but you managed to cast “some seeds.”
COVID related travel restrictions have been lifted or are being lifted over the world. Japan also reopens to independent travelers (finally). I want to try these marketing activities overseas: in Singapore, in the States; or in Germany or elsewhere. We are approaching the last quarter of the year, and soon the year end is to come, so I am very much excited about planning for the next year 🙂
