This is largest music exhibition in the world. It’s even larger than the one in Frankfurt. There are so many exhibitors such that the exhibition halls are not enough. This year, there is an extra hall located outside of the regular halls. We were told the response for the booths outside the main hall were exceptionally good. Maybe we’ll try that next year. Hmm…

This year’s exhibition was a little earlier into the October month than before. The weather is good. A whole week of rain before and sunny throughout the exhibition. This year is also the first time the exhibition was conducted on a pure work week. Initially when we book the booth, we were afraid without the weekend, it will affect the response. But it was business as usual for us. We’re not sure how it is with others.

Preparation for the exhibition begins as early as 3 months before the exhibition. This is also the time where many of our customers come to inspect their orders placed in Aug. So during the week before and after the exhibition, we’re kept very busy with our customer’s orders. Many of our customers leave their purchasing with other suppliers with us as well. So if you have come to the exhibition and is overwhelmed by the size and deciding which suppliers to choose, let us know. We know most the better suppliers. It’s a small circle so news gets around quite quickly.

As usual in our Shanghai exhibition, our focus is in the Chinese market. We distribute many European violins and products to the Chinese shops, teachers and music related resellers. Incidentally if you are a violin maker from USA, Europe or Japan and would like to work with us distribute your violins, violas or cellos or related products in China, please feel free to write us. This year, we did very well with our Italian new violins. We had orders from 12 Chinese resellers. This will keep our violinmakers in Italy busy all the way till next year till 2012. We sold a couple of German and French violins, some old. But

Shanghai exhibition is also a time where we meet up with our wholesalers and other customers from Europe and USA. This year our Japanese customers were absent from the exhibition. But they were nice to write us before the exhibition.