Cultural fair to open online Monday

Writer: Wang Jingli  |  Editor: Holly Wang  |  From: Shenzhen Daily  |  Updated: 2020-11-11

Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual 16th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) will take place from Monday to Friday next week.

It will be the first time the event will go virtual in its history, according to a press conference held by the Shenzhen Municipal Government Information Office yesterday.

A total of 3,243 companies from 30 countries and regions, such as France, Japan, Lithuania, Brazil and Turkey, will bring 21,572 exhibits to the fair, 931 more than the previous fair.

An opening ceremony will be held Monday and the fair will open 24 hours after the ceremony.

The fair will set up 12 virtual exhibition halls based on settings of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District, the venue for the previous fairs. Two of the exhibition halls are new, namely the movie industry sci-tech hall and Internet hall.

Technologies of 5G, VR, big data and AI will be used to meet demands of online business promotion activities.

An online exhibition platform will support business partners to sign contracts via a cloud signing system. The platform is made available in both Chinese and English for the convenience of international visitors.

The fair will also include themed exhibitions including a poverty alleviation-themed exhibition.

Launched in Shenzhen in 2004, the annual ICIF event was supposed to be held in May this year.

Due to the pandemic, this year’s ICIF was postponed to be held online this month, marking ICIF officially entering its digital era after many years of efforts in digital transformation.