For those of you who would like to check International Metalworking News for Asia's METALEX 2013 video coverage in Bangkok, please click the links below:
METALEX 2013: O-INSPECT multisensor CMMs
METALEX 2013: Sutton Tools demos aluminium machining
METALEX 2013: Demo of Renishaw Equator 300
METALEX 2013: Demo of FARO® Edge ScanArm ES
METALEX 2013: Mazak exhibits QUICK TURN PRIMOS
METALEX 2013: VICIVISION's MTL 300 Evo Optical Measuring Machine
METALEX 2013: Taveesak Srisuntisuk, Managing Director, Hexagon Metrology
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Majaal on finding space
Majaal WarehousingCompany, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the First Bahrain Real Estate Development
Company, embraces SMEs and revolutionises the country’s warehousing industry
Prior to 2007, small
and medium enterprises (SME) in Bahrain struggled to find warehousing space.
The domination of larger companies left them to use whatever remaining piece of
land or space they could find and possibly afford. Majaal Warehousing Company
saw this need and started to create that much-needed space.
Mr Amin Al Arrayed,
the company’s managing director, shares with the International Metalworking News -Middle East & Africa (IMNE) how Majaal has lived up to its name, and how the company’s
foresight has allowed it to define the industry and gain ground in terms of
market share.
IMNE: How did the company
start?
Al
Arrayed: We wanted to diversify our
portfolio of products. So, we conducted research studies on the SME sector,
looked at all the companies that provide storages, and we found that, while
larger companies have the capacity to invest on warehouses, the smaller ones
had difficulties because they didn't have the resources, what was available to
them was of poor quality, and they questioned if it was a good use of their
capital. Some small companies even resorted to simply converting residential
units into warehouses. Can you imagine that? We saw that and we wanted to fill
the gap in supply. So, in 2007, we decided to invest in small and medium
enterprise warehousing and started acquiring land in the Hidd industrial area,
which is in the East of the country, near the transportation hubs. It is a very
strategic location, as it is only 10 minutes from the airport and just 5
minutes from the Khalifa bin Salman new sea port.
IMNE: What does
“Majaal” mean?
Al
Arrayed: “Majaal” means “space” in Arabic.
Since we are in the business of providing space, it makes a lot of sense. It is
easy to pronounce in both English & Arabic, so it works well for the
company.
IMNE: What previous
experience did you have that made you confident you could succeed in this
field?
Al
Arrayed: I studied economics and banking
and I started my career working for the Central Bank of Bahrain. I did research
for the bank and served as superintendent for 5 years. Then I moved to a
commercial bank (BBK) in Bahrain and worked as senior manager for the bank for a
further 5 years. I specifically worked on the mortgage and prospective finance
so that gave me a good insight into the real estate market. It allowed me to
become knowledgeable in the real estate financing industry.
IMNE: Can you
explain to me a bit the nature of your business? I understand that apart from
being a focused developer and operator of industrial facilities, you also offer
support services including business administration and logistics support, a
24/7 security, state-of-the-art ICT provisions, transportation assistance, and
fit-out management services. How do all of these tie together?
Al
Arrayed: Our basic offer is the space.
The additional significant services you mentioned are what our tenants require
on-site; services they identified they also need.
IMNE: How has Majaal’s own
technology and expertise influenced and impacted the warehouse buildings in the
Middle East?
Al
Arrayed: We created a new category in
warehousing, and that is the SMEs. We were the first to enter this sector and
we pretty much defined it. In that sense, I believe we have made a significant impact
on the market, as we have raised the bar in offering services. To share with
you, we have recently been commissioned by a big landowner in the Bahrain
Investment Wharf who has taken interest in our business model. So this shows
how other people in the development sector are responding and showing interest
in our business model.
IMNE: What steps
are you taking then, from a management point of view to stay competitive and
progressive?
Al
Arrayed: I think the most important thing
is to continue to innovate. It is crucial to listen to our tenants and provide
them with what they need. So we do surveys to understand their requirements,
look at the ways we can further improve, and stay ahead of the curve. It is a
continuous review process. So if you will notice, we tend to do projects in
phases, instead of just one project in its entirety, because it allows us to
get feedback from the clients and improve the services as we go or develop.
IMNE: I read that your company has signed a key
sponsorship agreement with Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions (HCE) to
participate at the Gulf Industry Fair 2014 next February. Is this the first
time that you will be sponsoring the event? Will you keep up
the public exposure, attend local international shows and stay out front in the
media?
Al Arrayed: This is the third time that we are sponsoring the Gulf Industry Fair.
Ever since we opened our doors, we have been involved in this event because it
is important to showcase our products. The fair provides that avenue; it
gathers investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council or the GCC, which is our
market. We want to expand our market in the bloc, and through the fair, we gain
access to investors and tenants who want to avail the services we provide or
the space.
IMNE: In what
areas, or departments, will you continue to invest?
Al
Arrayed: Well, we continue to invest on
the offers or services we currently provide. It is not so much about creating a
new product but enhancing what we have, the existing departments in the
business. It is an ongoing process of upgrades.
IMNE: Do you
currently have any joint ventures from and R&D or marketing perspective
with foreign companies? Would you entertain this idea if you don’t at present?
Al
Arrayed: Yes. We have a number of joint
ventures. We do have tenants from other countries and we have started
partnerships with landowners in the head area. One is with Mazaya Holdings,
which is a Kuwaiti company.
IMNE: How has the
company progressed over the years?
Al
Arrayed: We have made significant growth.
We began acquiring land in 2007, where we acquired two plots each of 20,000
square metres. Then, we added another 20,000 square metres in 2008,. So, we currently
have 60,000 square metres in total.
IMNE: How involved
is the company in the Middle East’s warehouse buildings?
Al
Arrayed: We are heavily investing in the
warehousing and industrial business. To my knowledge, we are the first company
in the GCC to focus on SME warehousing.
IMNE: To sum up,
what would you say were the keys to Majaal’s ongoing
success story?
Al
Arrayed: I believe the key is the fact
that Majaal is very flexible in terms of offering its space. Since we also
cater to the small and medium enterprises, apart from the large companies, we
can provide a space of as small as 250 square metres to many thousands of
square metres. To illustrate that point, one of our clients is the local
distributor of Proctor and Gamble and it occupies 10,000 square metres. And we
also offer space to a small bakery and it occupies 250 square metres. What I
mean to say is, everyone can find a space in our units. And that allows us to
take a big share of the market.
By: Mia Aureus
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
MOLTEC execs on strategies & future plans
Located in Selangor, Malaysia, MOLTEC PRECISION Sdn.Bhd is well known locally, as well as internationally for specialising in the design and manufacture of precision injection moulds used in precision electronics, electrical and automotive parts. Moltec’s strong commitment to design and manufacture high-performance quality moulds has earned them the ISO 9001 and 2000 accreditations, and secured their name as one of the most dynamic mould maker in the industry.
International Metal Working News for Asia (IMNA) spoke to Directors Mr Alan Ng and Mr Sunny Ng including Sales & Marketing Manager Ms Jocelyn Tan about the company’s profile, speciality, strategies and future expansion plans.
IMNA: How did you start your company?Alan: Moltec was founded by both Mr. Sunny and I back in the year 1993; and have been operating for more than 20 years now. Since then, our management and workforce size have been growing steadily, maintaining the quality and standards we offer our customers.
Our manufacturing processes are done locally but we aim to expand outside Malaysia to reach a bigger market. We plan to continue specialising in making quality dies and moulds to meet customers’ demands, and hopefully become an international supplier.
Moltec passed the ISO 9001 and 2000 standards, which is a great accomplishment for us. It has boost up our confidence level with hopes of gaining more prospective customers.
IMNA: What were the difficulties in the beginning and how did you overcome them?
Sunny: We’ve faced a fair amount of hardships and difficulties in the beginning. Our biggest challenge is looking for customers and keeping their loyalty to us. There was a time when Alan and I practically stayed in the office the whole time to help the company become stable. We managed to overcome the first difficult part of searching for new customers by providing quality services to our growing clients. Those loyal to us in return provided us with strong referrals and placed repeated orders.Moltec uses technologies from Germany, Japan, and China and other countries. We integrate excellence into our day-to-day manufacturing operation to give our customers only the best.
IMNA: What differentiates the company form its competition in Malaysia and outside the country?
Alan: Apart from Moltec’s uniqueness and being one of the biggest manufacturers of die and moulds in Malaysia, we exert in providing good follow ups and after-sales services to our customers.
In comparison to our rivals in the industry whose prices may be cheaper than ours is that we maintain a good practice of delivering quality goods, aside from the follow ups and after-sales services in which our customers appreciate very much.
IMNA: Which country is your biggest market?
Jocelyn: At the moment, Malaysia is our biggest market wherein majority of our sales come from local businesses. However, we have a reasonable share of dealings with multinational corporations that brings in foreign investments into Malaysia.
IMNA: Which particular industry do you supply to and how do you promote your products?
Jocelyn: Our company supplies to mostly electronics, electrical, and automotive industries as well as home appliances. An example of electronic product is the camcorder. We promote our products through advertisements in some associations, in addition to publishing through product directories. Our products are also publicised by existing customers, who are satisfied by our product quality, by word of mouth to potential clients. Moltec’s website is also amply equipped with many details and product information for easy access by interested or possible customers.
IMNA: What are the key marketing factors that have contributed to the company’s success?
Sunny: I think it would be “good communication” between the management and the team. Innovative ideas flow freely during board meetings. Also, our highly committed management executive team performs detailed planning on the company’s day-to-day operations.
Every week we conduct a management meeting with department heads to better examine our performances, as well as to resolve any conflicts that we may have.
In addition, we have good equipment from reputable companies, which in-return generate and produce quality finished goods that we deliver, meeting our customer needs and requirements.
IMNA: With Malaysia being one of the fastest growing economies in the region, what is your strategy to accommodate this rapid growth potential into the future?
Sunny: We plan to strengthen our marketing overseas to generate more sales, and to improve our company presence abroad; since setting up a manufacturing centre in a foreign country may be very costly. For the time being, manufacturing processes would be done in Malaysia. Expanding our presence in the international market can help improve Moltec’s overall business.
IMNA: What are your plans for the future?
Sunny: We plan to increase our production capacity and meet the rising demand from both local and overseas markets. We also plan to have additional marketing offices abroad so that more people will be aware of our company, and at the same time improve our export activities.
IMNA: What is your view in terms of waste management?
Jocelyn: We have a set of guidelines in place to reduce waste management. Also, our equipment from Blum-Novotest GmbH makes sure we process our waste in full compliance to the rules and regulations set out by the local government.
IMNA: Do you have any particular requirements when purchasing materials and processing equipment?
Sunny: We are most concern over the quality of the materials and equipment purchased as this would greatly affect the outcome of our finished goods. In addition, delivery time is also very important to us, as delays could disrupt the manufacturing process and ultimately cause delivery interruptions to our customers.
IMNA: How long have you been a customer of BLUM?
Sunny: We’ve been BLUM’s customer for seven years now.
IMNA: Can you share with us your experience and lessons learnt while using BLUM’s equipment?
Sunny: By incorporating BLUM’s precision tools into our manufacturing process, our set up time has improved, including accuracy. The time saved has lowered the product rejection rate and has enhanced the input and output ratio of our moulds & dies.
IMNA: What was your reason for choosing BLUM? You must have a wide selection to choose from. Do BLUM’s solutions integrate well with your mould and die manufacturing?
Sunny: To date, BLUM’s solutions have been very efficient and given us no reason to search for alternatives. BLUM has been consistently providing good support to us and there’s no problem so far in our dealings with them. BLUM’s solution integrates very well into our machines, especially when it comes to selecting CNC machines for acquisition.
IMNA: What specific changes/improvements/enhancements would you like to see BLUM build into future releases of their equipment? Are you able to suggest to BLUM specific features that you would like to see?
Sunny: We hope that BLUM could integrate CAD/CAM into their future release of equipment for direct measurement and form control. With continuous upgrades and improvements, we’ll continue to use BLUM’s solutions.MOLTEC PRECISION Sdn. Bhd.
No. 7, Jalan Empat,Kawasan Perindustrian Selayang Baru, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel: +6(03) 6138 7110
Fax: +6(03) 6137 5898
Website: www.moltec.com.my
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Ringier Conference issues call for papers and speakers
Ringier
Conferences, organizer of “Asia High Efficiency Metalworking Summit 2014”,
announces the Call for Papers and Speakers. The conference will be held in
Bangkok Thailand, May 14-15, 2014.
Ringier
Conferences is soliciting proposals from speakers with deep technical expertise
and innovative applications and ideas for the technical conference program and training
sessions about green, smart, innovative,
high speed and efficient metalworking processes.
We are accepting
applications for the following tracks:
·
Laser
machining tools
·
High-speed
machining centers
·
Automated
metal cutting systems
·
Synchronous
grinding
·
Precision
electrochemical machining (PECM)
·
Pick-up
spindle vertical turning
·
Automated
machining
·
Induction
hardening
The conference organizer is particularly interested in abstracts
describing:
- Talks
that are more technical and reveal new ways of thinking about and applying
advanced metalworking technology in the automotive and electronics
industry.
- Talks
that feature content never seen before that you have created specifically
for the Metalworking Conference.
- Real-world
case studies involving the novel application of technology or illustrating
a solution to a technical challenge in an end product, including a
detailed discussion of the trade-offs and choices made (and why) during
the manufacturing process.
- Hands-on
demos illustrating key technical principles and talks that engage the
audience in an unusual or more interactive way.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Evolving to serve in the digital age
I am sharing with you all an interview of Ringier Trade Media's President Michael R. Hay, as he looks back on 15 years of serving metalworking, plastics and food industries and eyes what's in store for thousands of our readers worldwide.
***
THERE wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing," recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情 and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版 in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labor-intensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike sees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, image driven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says. “So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.”
- See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.QoYIqb4C.dpuf
***
THERE wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing," recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情 and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版 in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labor-intensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike sees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, image driven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says. “So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.”
- See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.QoYIqb4C.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
THERE
wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big
story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was
quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and
quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground
to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only
China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was
taking.
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.
“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.
In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.
“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.
It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.
In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.
“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.
China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.
In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has also partnered with international publishing firms with significant markets in the United States, Latin America and Europe as well as setting up co-branded titles in India. “We were basically the first B2B media company from this area to set up kind of a joint venture in India and build a bridge between two great trading centres,” says Mike.
Keeping pace with developments
As the core industries developed and specialised, Ringier Trade introduced new titles to serve their requirements. These included for instance, Rubber World for China（国际橡胶商情）and Reinforced Plastics China（增强塑料－中国版） in Plastics, and International Mold & Die Making News for China（国际模具制造商情）and Automotive Engineering International China（国际汽车工程－中 文版）in Metalworking. The expansion of print media has also been territorial; English trade journals were the natural progression to serve the Plastics, Metalworking and Food & Beverage industries in South East Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
The company also holds 20 specialised conferences annually. While organizing these events is very time- and labourintensive, this form of communication and interaction is booming. “There still remains a very great need for companies to build relationships, to create business networks. People still want to meet people. People still want to develop those contacts and build trust and confidence with their suppliers and potential customers and you do that through events. So that’s what led me into the conference business,” Mike explains.
In the opposite direction is digital marketing in which Ringier Trade has directed a lot of resources in the past six or seven or so years. “Money, people and time have gone to enhancing our website, industrysourcing.com, and all our digital services – whether it's the occasional webinar, web TV, the showrooms that we have – and this all never stops. The technology changes, so you have to change – constant reinvention, re-investment just to keep up with the technology. And then smartphones change the game dramatically so we have to change again,” he says.
The future is content marketing
As Ringier Trade celebrates its 15th anniversary, Mike s ees B2B communications evolving to incorporate content marketing. A whole new style of advertising, content marketing is not the easiest concept to explain to an advertisers so he has personally been meeting with select clients to introduce what Ringier can offer them.
“In the digital age, the communication process will be very text-driven, imagedriven, more informative, and present a company through thought leadership, and that builds up trust and generates inquiries in a bit more of an indirect way,” he says.“So that is one area of change that will change the way we will incorporate our content. In the past, the mandate to the editors was produce the best quality content that you can for the magazine. Today, it's totally turned on its head. I tell our editors that they are content directors, they're brand managers, and most importantly, the most important brand now is what they do in digital.” - See more at: http://us.industrysourcing.com/news/278013.aspx#sthash.9oEX6uNq.dpuf
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Out of the ordinary: Elastic Electronics
I am sharing a very interesting feature article from the University of Michigan about “Stretchable gold conductor that grows its own wires.” How cool is that, right?
According
to the article, networks of spherical nanoparticles
embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet,
engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered.
Flexible electronics have a wide variety of possibilities, from bendable
displays and batteries to medical implants that move with the body.
"Essentially the new nanoparticle materials behave as elastic
metals," said Nicholas Kotov, the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka
Professor of Engineering. "It's just the start of a new family of
materials that can be made from a large variety of nanoparticles for a wide
range of applications."
Finding good conductors that still work when pulled to twice their
length is a tall order—researchers have tried wires in tortuous zigzag or
spring-like patterns, liquid metals, nanowire networks and more. The team was
surprised that spherical gold nanoparticles embedded in polyurethane could
outcompete the best of these in stretchability and concentration of electrons.
"We found that nanoparticles aligned into chain form when
stretching. That can make excellent conducting pathways," said Yoonseob
Kim, first author of the study to be published in Nature on July 18 and
a graduate student in the Kotov lab in chemical engineering.
To find out what happened as the material stretched the team took
state-of-the-art electron microscope images of the materials at various
tensions. The nanoparticles started out dispersed, but under strain, they could
filter through the minuscule gaps in the polyurethane, connecting in chains as
they would in a solution.
"As we stretch, they rearrange themselves to maintain the
conductivity, and this is the reason why we got the amazing combination of
stretchability and electrical conductivity," Kotov said.
The team made two versions of their material—by building it in
alternating layers or filtering a liquid containing polyurethane and
nanoparticle clumps to leave behind a mixed layer. Overall, the layer-by-layer
material design is more conductive while the filtered method makes for
extremely supple materials. Without stretching, the layer-by-layer material
with five gold layers has a conductance of 11,000 Siemens per centimeter (S/cm),
on par with mercury, while five layers of the filtered material came in at
1,800 S/cm, more akin to good plastic conductors.
The eerie, blood-vessel-like web of nanoparticles emerged in both
materials upon stretching and disappeared when the materials relaxed. Even when
close to its breaking point, at a little more than twice its original length,
the layer-by-layer material still conducted at 2,400 S/cm. Pulled to an
unprecedented 5.8 times its original length, the filtered material had an
electrical conductance of 35 S/cm—enough for some devices.
Kotov and Kim chiefly see their stretchable conductors as electrodes.
Brain implants are of particular interest to Kotov.
"They can alleviate a lot of diseases—for instance, severe
depression, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease," he said.
"They can also serve as a part of artificial limbs and other prosthetic
devices controlled by the brain."
Rigid electrodes create scar tissue that prevents the electrode from
working over time, but electrodes that move like brain tissue could avoid
damaging cells, Kotov said.
"The stretchability is essential during implantation process and
long-term operation of the implant when strain on the material can be
particularly large," he said.
Whether in the brain, heart or other organs—or used for measurements on
the skin—these electrodes could be as pliable as the surrounding tissue. They
could also be used in displays that can roll up or in the joints of lifelike
"soft" robots.
Because the chain-forming tendency of nanoparticles is so universal many
other materials could stretch, such as semiconductors. In addition to serving
as flexible transistors for computing, elastic semiconductors may extend the
lives of lithium-ion batteries. Kotov's team is exploring various nanoparticle
fillers for stretchable electronics, including less expensive metals and
semiconductors.
Kotov is a professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering,
materials science and engineering and macromolecular science and engineering.
The study is titled "Stretchable Nanoparticle Conductors with
Self-Organized Conductive Pathways." The work is funded by the STX
foundation in Seoul, South Korea; U.S. Department of Energy's Office of
Science; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Air Force Office of
Scientific Research; and National Science Foundation. U-M is pursuing patent
protection for the intellectual property and seeking commercialization partners
to help bring the technology to market.
Description: Networks of spherical nanoparticles embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered.
LEFT: an electron microscope image of the gold nanoparticles in a relaxed sample of the layer-by-layer material. The nanoparticles are dispersed. RIGHT: a similar sample stretched to a little over twice its original length, at the same magnification. The nanoparticles form a distinct network
Watch and embed the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ7_TPSSfys.
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