I bet you thought I wouldn't post an entry this week =P
I was unable to blog yesterday because I was at the MAFBEX in World Trade Center (Pasay City). I went there with a couple of friends to check it out. It's my first time to attend a food and beverage expo (MAFBEX stands for Manila Food and Beverage Expo), so I went in with no expectations. I didn't bring my camera with me, primarily because I went there for myself. I am sure you will see the pictures from press releases anyways.
The Basics
If you brought a car, you have two options - you can park at the old Boom na Boom lot, or you can park inside World Trade Center compound. I don't know the parking rates of Boom na Boom, but for the latter one, it costs 30.00 (I think, hehe. It was my friend who paid for it). It can get muddy when it rains so don't bring white colored vehicles or small cars (pot hole filled parking lot), unless that's the only car you have.
The entrance fee will set you off by Php 50.00 and a list of the exhibitors' directory will cost Php 150.00. I attended an exhibit previously in SMX of the Mall of Asia, the entrance was free, but the exhibitors were not really that exciting (This was the recently concluded Chinese Trade Expo).
There are free seminars, cooking presentations and myriads of foodstuffs you can buy. There are also suppliers, some franchisors, and if you are lucky you may just be able to meet Bobby Andrews (it's the only link with a picture). He has a booth at the last row to the right. I'm not much of a fan of local movie stars but I am happy that these guys - or at least much of them - are wise enough to invest their money in a business.
If you are someone who is inquisitive and have a nose for details, then you will need about 3-4 hours to cover the entire ground. Yes, I finished after that much time. ^^
For the hungry visitors, I didn't check out the prices of the food outside of the exhibit area, I bought my food inside. I ate shawarma with rice. The beef was good, yumyum. I think it cost me about Php 65 to 70. I have some short term memory problems hehe, my apologies. My only gripe is that a cup of gulaman being sold inside costs Php 12.00!
If you are a hotdog or German franks fanatic, then there's Hero, Purefoods and Swift. There's McDo, and Yellow Cab pizza for someone who has higher tastes in food (well relatively anyway).
Enough of the gastronomic finds there. This blog is about finance, not food. I'll leave the food stuff to other blogs who really know what they're talking about with regards to food.
The Good and the Bad
There are a lot of exhibitors and most of them are quality exhibitors. There were some oddities (vis-a-vis the meaning of MAFBEX) because there were about two booths selling apparel. Then there were people selling these huge standing airconditioners. Then there were booths selling health supplements, magazines, credit card memberships, and worse, vacation club memberships.
These vacation clubs entice you by promoting their free raffle. I begged off after an awful experience in the past. Let me recount the ways.
A few years back, I signed up on one such vacation club because of their enticing raffle. After some weeks I was notified that I won the free vacation publicized by the exhibitor. I was excited so I took a day off to claim my prize. Yes, a day off!
When I was there, I was ushered into a huge room filled with about eight tables. I started to think that there was something fishy going on.
I was led into another room that contained a TV and a DVD player. The usher told me to watch the video and that she would be back after about 10 minutes. She turned on the player and the TV and left me inside the room. The video was an infommercial about their resort up in Pangasinan.
After the DVD played its last minute, the usher was back and she then led me back to that huge room. This time, the tables had a booklet placed on top of each of them. The usher then asked me to fill up a short questionnaire, and thus began her long spiel.
The booklet contained a list of hundreds of hotels from around the globe. After about ten minutes, she then asked me sets of questions regarding my vacation habits. After the end of a series of questions, she was puzzled as to my habits, or lack of them. I hated traveling. (I don't see the point to traveling because I don't have excess money. I'm of the opinion that traveling is stressful because of the preparation and the unpacking once you go back home.)
It was after the entire process was finished that I realized that she was selling me timeshares for the hotels accredited with their organization. I politely said no to every selling tactic she had up her sleeve. Finally, she surrendered and just showed me the way to the front desk where I would receive my ticket to a free overnight stay at their Pangasinan resort.
I didn't book it. I hated that they wasted my entire afternoon. I can't say if what they did was legit or not, but one thing is for sure - it wasn't enticing.
Let's go back to the MAFBEX.
It's encouraging that despite the high inflation, high fuel costs, and high entrance fee, people still visited the exhibit. This means that Filipinos are all still looking for ways to earn extra money. The flipside is that most of the visitors who were there (at least yesterday) were students. A huge percentage of that are students from the College of St. Benilde because I think they're one of the co-sponsors.
I for one didn't find much opportunities that I could take advantage of. The exhibitors there were the same exhibitors from another franchising exhibit that I have attended in the past. A friend of mine sent me an SMS during their opening day and told me that it was just the same as last year's MAFBEX. Go figure.
However, if you're a restaurateur who is looking to expand or want to look for suppliers, then the MAFBEX can provide you with some good opportunities. There's a representative booth for HALAL certification. There are about 4-5 kitchen equipment suppliers for those who are looking to open up a restaurant. Then, for those interested to retail coffee, there are plenty of coffee bean sellers to choose from.
I went there with no expectations, but I wanted to have some fresh ideas and new opportunities I could venture into in the food industry. I can't say that I was disappointed, but neither can I say that I was awed in the MAFBEX. My search for a profitable venture continues.
Pay (pun very much intended) a visit and see for yourself. Maybe you can give me a different perspective.
P.S. Please visit my other blog. Thank you. I write just as well as I do here. Hehe.
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