This year’s Korea Lift Safety Expo will lay the foundations for it becoming an international event, Kong Chang-seok, the president of Korea Elevator Safety Institute and the head of the Korea Lift Safety Expo 2012 organizing committee, said.

Organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the four-day event kicks off on Oct. 23 at the COEX exhibition center in Seoul.

“In order to compete with international expos specializing in elevator technologies, the scale of the event needs to be expanded through a convergent exhibition strategy,” Kong said. 

The expo is the largest of its kind held in Korea, and the organizers aim to elevate it to an international expo from 2014. In addition, the organizing committee has put forward plans for expanding the event to become one of the world’s three largest events of its kind by 2020.

“Unlike the previous event, this year’s event will be held under the theme ‘Green City Week,’ and five exhibitions on elements essential for establishing a large city ― elevators, construction, buildings, public facilities and security equipment ― will be held together.”

As the first step in moving toward the goals, the scale of this year’s event has been increased by more than fivefold compared to that of 2010.

In addition to including a wider range of exhibitors and topics, the organizing committee will operate a business center that will provide marketing support for participating companies for the first time.

Through the center, the organizers hope to increase the event’s contribution to exhibitors’ sales by threefold compared to 2010, Kong said.

According to Kong, the 2010 event led to sales of 1.2 billion won ($1.06 million).

Regarding the number of exhibitors, Kong said that 50 companies have signed up so far, but that achieving the target of 70 corporate exhibitors will not be difficult. He added that the number of foreign buyers and visitors attending the event will likely be boosted by the fact that the International Organization for Standardization’s elevator technical committee is meeting in Korea during the expo.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)