Diary on the first day of the exhibition
Without the grand opening ceremony, the exhibition started in the midst of busy work. About 9 o'clock, the more than thousand attending companies, with their own brochures in hand, went into the exhibition center in quick steps. Whether they know each other or not, they will smile at each other. With a simple “MORNING” and “HOW ARE YOU ？ ”,they greets each other merrily. International Boston Seafood Show is just like that, very friendly and pragmatic, sending out the warmth and trust to everybody.

At about 10 o'clock, people from all walks of life, including the purchasers, salesman, brokers, commercial institutions, the practitioners in the hotel and restaurant industry, and the practitioners in service area related to fisheries, together more than ten thousand people, trickled into the exhibition hall, and stayed in front of every stands. They communicated with each other and taste the various kinds of delicates made from seafood. Some of them even signed the agreement without hesitate at the exhibition. The exhibition hall is extraordinarily lively and full with fragrance, just like the festive feast with the most delicious food gathered together. All the people with different skins are talking pleasantly with others, resembling the UN Conferences in the fisheries industry.

Our stand is in the second row near the entrance, which is specially appointed to Foods 1 Company by the Organizing Committee. Everyone entering the exhibition hall will definitely pass by our stand. The reason for the great favor from the Organizing Committee is because of our long-time good relationship and our being the most important specialized website related to the food industry, especially the fisheries industry in China.

The stands that make fabulous and terrific meals are the most popular, however, we are not a bit behind them. Our staff is all-time-long busy with welcoming the clients from every country. Some foreign clients, on seeing our website tags, speak out “FOODS1, I KNOW IT” without any thought, because we have done business on the Internet, “they are quite good”. On hearing the compliments from them, we feel very satisfied, and without any delay, we will introduce to them some service on our website, and enquire if they have any other demands. We will introduce the companies with our membership both from China and abroad to them in accordance with their demand. When the clients left our stand, they thanked us with so much sincerity.

Although it is the first time for some foreign customer to know our website, however after our introduction, they got very interested with our website, commented that we are very professional and took away with them more brochures and CDs, for they also want their friends to know us and then to discuss with them the possibility and the details of cooperating with us.

An American customer came to our stand, and after the communication, he praised that our staff can speak quite good English, and that when he paid visit to other Chinese stands, the other party cannot understand him at all, and asked our help to translate his meaning into Chinese, and marked it with Chinese pronunciation. After my translation for him, I asked what kind product he need, because our membership company can also provide these products, and most of them have very good English salesman. And even our membership companies have no such man, our website can also provide the language service, the language difficulty will never become an obstacle in the Sino-American business.

There are also many interesting things in the exhibition. A Mexican customer comes to our stand to ask how to pronounce the respective words of “buy” and “sell” in particular, because he not only want to buy Chinese seafood, but also to export to China . In order to shorten the distance with Chinese merchants, he comes here in person to learn a few Chinese sentences.

Then there is another Thailand customer, who, after our introduction, got very interested, and stated that our website will sure provide some business opportunity for them. To our surprise , half an hour later, he came with seven or eight Thailand friends, and introduced to them that we are very professional and told what we have said to him to his friends, just like a volunteer of our company.

There are some clients from Chinese seafood industry, after seeing our assistance to our VIP membership companies by handing out their brochures, they all say that they are familiar to them, it is no wonder that their business goes so well, just because of Foods1 Company. I also told them we are just on behalf of our membership companies and we will spare no efforts in helping them and introduce them to the foreign purchasers. Through using the most advanced scanner to collect the contact methods and trade intention of the clients and translating them into Chinese after coming back , we are always trying our uttermost to help them, and we will send the information to our VIP membership incorporations. On knowing that, the Chinese clients admired them so much, and announced that if he knew us earlier, then we would spare him the effort of journeying to the US , and with his bad English, he only gathered quite limited information, so immediately he promised to contact with us after when back to China .

Then here is another Spanish client. He got very enthusiastic with our service, for it is just what they wanted. However, he also gave us some suggestion that we should also give out the Spanish version of the website beside Chinese, Japanese, Korean, because so many population speak Spanish. Owing to this defect, we apologized to him and also expect more trade communities can benefit from our website.

This morning, the officials from the NOAA ( National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) came to our stand too . We are now longtime friends, and can feel the friendliness between us on the first sight. NOAA is the authoritative organization in the US fisheries information aspect, and we have agreed to cooperate with each other and to exchange both the supply and the demand information of seafood in the US . and Chinese market. Our only aim is to construct a trade express for the fisheries bushiness in both nations.

There are so many purchasers of tilapia (whole round or fillet), white shrimp, narrow cod fillet, real cod fillet, small prawns, squid, mackerel fillet, etc. Fortunately, these are just what Chinese enterprises want to export. So on the scene, we recommend some of our VIP membership enterprises and send out their brochures and CDs to the merchants. The foreign client right away told us “THAT'S WHAT I NEED”, and they will think it over after returning and contact with these companies.

At 5 pm. the exhibition for today was over and the visitors were gong out. However we stayed there until the last moment, to hunt for the trade opportunities for our membership enterprises to the uttermost degree. After stepping out the exhibition hall, it was a little dark, and from the distance comes into our ear some crisp twittering of the seagulls, alas, even the a-little-salty sea wind gives us comfort.

Though tired, very substantial today is! Have a good rest, and tomorrow, we will do better.