January 10, 2024
Talking to Trade Show Organizers:
FOOD STYLE Japan 2024
"Food Style Japan" is a trade show where the food, beverage, equipment, and service sectors come together to expand sales channels in food service, home meal replacement, and retailing. The event will be held in four regions across Japan: Kanto, Kansai, Chubu, and Kyushu. We spoke with Ms. Ikuko Kubota of Innovent Co., Ltd., which will soon be staging Food Style Kansai on January 24 and 25 at Intex Osaka.
Ikuko Kubota
General Manager
First division
Innovent Co., Ltd.
FOOD STYLE Kansai is a cross-industry business meeting exhibition that traverses the entire country. Who are the target exhibitors and visitors for the event in January?
They are food and beverage manufacturers and producers who wish to develop and expand their sales channels to the food service, home meal replacement, and retail industries, as well as those who have equipment, facilities, systems, services, containers, materials, and other non-food products to solve problems in food and beverage industries. The Ramen Expo will be held simultaneously, showing foodstuffs, equipment, and services related to ramen store management. This event is intended for procurement and purchasing managers and industry professionals in the food service, home meal replacement, and retail industries.
What can be expected from business meetings between exhibitors and visitors?
Exhibitors will discover new business partners, and visitors will be able to meet new products to purchase in discussions, which will lead to business transactions for both parties.
With the technological innovations of DX and AI, are there any differences or changes in the way of exhibiting and how products and services are presented and attract people now, compared to before the pandemic?
During the pandemic, many exhibitors simplified their booth decorations and refrained from offering food and beverage tastings, but post-pandemic, they're back with food and beverage tastings at their booths. The five senses are also essential in making decisions, especially at exhibitions dealing with food, so hands-on experiences like sampling foods and drinks are indispensable. Also, nowadays, we see many new commercial products related to DX and AI, and many exhibitors are from such companies.
The exhibition slogan is "More Japanese food to the whole country! More of the world's food to Japan!" How many overseas exhibitors will there be on the "More of the world's food to Japan!" side?
Food Style Japan 2024 is currently in the process of recruiting exhibitors. Last time, there were about five exhibitors with domestic offices and many exhibitors from importing trading companies.
The free-of-charge, exhibitor-only program for business matching with buyers from stores and facilities will look very attractive. Will it be operating at the January exhibition? How many buyers do you expect to invite, and how many business meetings do you expect?
Yes, we will be running the program. Approximately 75 domestic invited buyers from restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, department stores, etc., are expected to participate in the event, with approximately 390 business meetings. In addition, about ten buyers from overseas and trading companies are expected to hold about 30 individual business meetings about overseas exports.
Are there any other showcase concurrent events for this show?
Food Style Kansai will be held with many other events and special programs. The site is only available in Japanese, but you can view it from the following link.
https://foodstyle.jp/kansai/event.php
Do you have anything else to add?
Food Style shows will be held in Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, and Kyushu in 2024 to showcase attractive products and goods unique to each region and promote products and goods that need development and expanded sales channels in each area. We will strive to revitalize the food industry by serving as an exhibition where visitors can find hints for solving all kinds of issues in the food industry and encounter undiscovered goods and outstanding products.
