Interview with Hakan Mirgün / Tüyap Deputy General Manager
1. What would you like to say about Istanbul Yarn Fair’s activities?
International Istanbul Yarn Fair has been a commercial platform which unites Turkish yarn manufacturers and the entire textile industry operating both at home and abroad, for 18 years. International Istanbul Yarn Fair’s scope, with its participants and visitors, has found a place for itself among the most important textile fairs in Eurasian Region.
2. Could you give information about the products that will be demonstrated at the Fair? What do you pay attention when you are considering the participating companies?
The products that will be demonstrated at the fair will be; Cotton Yarn, Elastane Yarn, Bay Yarn, Acrylic Yarn, Spun Thread, Viscose Yarn, Silk Yarn, Nylon Yarn, Fancy Yarn, Textured Yarn, Organic Yarn, Polypropylene Yarn, Regenerated Yarn, Metallic Yarn, Hand Knitting Yarn, Technical Yarn, Fiber and Bobbin, Spool Rack and Reel. While determining the participating companies, we include companies that have a connection with the fair and that provide service to this industry. We are waiting for the professionals and interested ones.
3. Should those who would like to attend or be guest of your fair at home or from abroad apply to you?
There are forms that we have prepared for the people who would like to attend as a visitor or for the companies that would like to participate with a stand on our Yarn Fair website. Individuals who would like to visit the fair can create their invitations by filling the form on our website.
Companies that would like to open a stand or would like to be a participant can also fill the “Participant Form with a Stand” form or they can contact directly with our sales team that they can find the information on the contact part of the website. In addition to those, they can always contact with us via our social media accounts. Especially in this industry, we consider that live fair is very significant.
Because the yarn itself is such a product that can be felt only by touching and seeing. However, for the participants who cannot arrange their programs, we will communicate with our participants via Business Connect system and unite them at our Yarn Fair, as we did in our fairs.
With the digital solutions that Business Connect provides, our participating companies and visitors will come together, arrange meetings and maintain their communication in a virtual platform via our online business network. Thanks to that, they can have new business contacts and initiate new partnerships in the digital environment.
4. Could you tell us about your sales, marketing structure and your new investments, if you have any?
As Tüyap Fair Group, we became the very first fair company to obtain the TSE COVID-19 Secure Service Certificate and we have registered all our applications.
It is a priority to us to provide a secure fair experience to all our participants and visitors.
For years, we have been investing in to digital technologies. With those investments, we are developing our digital platforms that will provide services to our participants and visitors and we offer them to our shareholders.
For example, with our MyTüyap application, we put into practice the detailed participant search, business card exchange, fair schedule and e-name badge functions. For the companies that will participate to the fair with a stand, we use our Participant Portal application actively in all our fairs by transferring all the good and services to the digital environment.
At this point, the value of those products proved themselves. We have developed those products and we became one of the pioneers of hybrid fairs in the world. Istanbul Yarn Fair will be supported by our digital platforms and will be one of the significant examples of hybrid fairs.
We also unite participants and visitors who cannot come to the fairground with the Business Connect application that we developed. With the preparation date that will start on February 21, we provide to our participants and visitors the opportunity to schedule their meetings during the fair, to establish new business contacts and message before the fair, to find the product/customer and supplier.
Thanks to this application which will continue even after the fair, we provide the opportunity to maintain the business contacts which was established during the fair and to establish new contacts via the platform during the year.
5. As for the ratios; What percentage of the participation of Turkish companies in the fair? What is the foreign participant rate?
Istanbul Yarn Fair is a fair that is growing by adding new participants to its loyal ones every year. Our old participants also took their places in this year’s fair too, as they did last year. Besides that, new participants are also continuing to take their places. There is 1,5 months left until the Fair and our sales are almost completed.
This year, we have moved to larger halls for the demonstration of the products which is different than the last year’s fair. From now on we will be providing services in 4 halls to our participants and visitors. We are planning to organize our fair on total of 22.686 m2. Within this plan, within this plan, 22% of the fair consists of foreign companies and 78% of domestic companies.
6. Are there any institutions that help you to organize the fair organizations? And why is the Yarn Fair held in Istanbul?
In order to dominate the world and regional market, persistence and maintainability is the most valuable asset in the fair profession.
Organize it in the same place and make it a tradition contributes to the development of the industry due to the follow-up of all parties in the market. Because of this, the 18th Yarn Fair is held in Istanbul Tüyap Fair and Congress Center. It has taken its place in the agenda of many business people who are professionals of the subject in our region. T.R. The Ministry of Commerce and KOSGEB support our fair participants and our fair.
7. In conclusion, do you have anything you would like to add besides your goals for the new year and do you have any messages to your readers?
Our fair which unites local and foreign professionals of the industry and hosts strong cooperation every year it is held, will bring industry’s professionals together.
In this scope, we maintain our efficient advertising activities at home and abroad. Through our collaborations with national, local and sectoral publications, we reach yarn professionals through the most accurate channels.
We are rapidly maintaining our efforts to be certain that the fair, which is a trade platform that our participating companies can deliver their products and services to the accurate buyers, to provide an efficient fair experience to all its stakeholders. We are continuing to our preparations with this awareness and responsibility.
Tüyap Fair Group which is the pioneer of the fair development in Turkey, has held 1,827 fairs in the country and 200 fairs in 39 countries abroad since its establishment. Tüyap has served 337 thousand 913 companies from 127 countries and hosted 67 million 133 thousand 226 visitors from 213 countries at the fairs it organized in the 42 years it has left behind.
The company that organized the first Turkish exported goods fair in China, Russia and Africa, still organizes Turkish national participation in an average of 10 international fairs per year. Tüyap which is the only private sector fair organization with its own fair center in Turkey, with its Professional staff and more than 100 professional association, makes long-term cooperation and it organizes regular specialization fairs with 6 fair centers owned and operated in Turkey and international offices in 4 countries.
