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Benjamin Robertson

Attendance estimates at recent back-to-back electronics fairs show little indication that Occupy Central demonstrators or a spluttering global economy are having any impact on consumer appetites for the latest gizmos and lifestyle accessories.
About 95,000 people visited the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Electronics Fair and electronicAsia events that finished on Thursday in Wan Chai, a footfall number down ,arginally from last year.
More than 19,000 buyers are expected at the Global Sources Mobile Electronics Show at the Asia World Expo that starts today and runs until Tuesday, with 1,500 exhibitor booths sold - up 50 per cent on the last fair in April.
Some prospective overseas buyers wanted to know if the protests would affect how they could get around the city, said James Strachan, an executive vice-president of fair organiser Global Sources.
Strachan said he did not expect many people would be put off by the demonstrations, given his company's event is being held next to the airport.
Another reason may be that visitors at today's fair represent global retail and distribution giants which have to stay on top of changing trends.
At the recently finished HKTDC events, it was 3D printers that stole the show. Today, it will be consumer wearables: a new wave of portable electronic gadgets that can track a person's movement, measure vitals, or link to the internet through an accessory such as a watch or pair of glasses.
Other examples are clothes that change colours under different tones of light or bracelets that measure humidity levels and then tell the wearer how much skin moisturiser is needed.
"Wearables are just getting ready to happen," said Strachan, whose company, in addition to running trade fairs, also competes with Alibaba and Amazon for merchants trading their goods on online platforms.
The future for wearables is seen as so lucrative that Nasdaq-listed Global Sources carved out a stand-alone fair for a sector that sits midway between electronics and fashion. The company estimates the still embryonic market will be worth US$8 billion by 2018 and expects mainland firms to play a major role in developing wearable technologies.


Electronic gadgets and wearables keep trade fairs busy

Consumer wearables such as this smartwatch are expected to grab the spotlight at the electronics fair starting today. Photo: Bloomberg

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Despite Occupy protests, events attract about 95,000 visitors, down 5 per cent from last year


Attendance estimates at recent back-to-back electronics fairs show little indication that Occupy Central demonstrators or a spluttering global economy are having any impact on consumer appetites for the latest gizmos and lifestyle accessories.


Electronic gadgets and wearables keep trade fairs busy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Despite Occupy protests, events attract about 95,000 visitors, down 5 per cent from last year

Despite Occupy protests, events attract about 95,000 visitors, down 5 per cent from last year