Premium Beauty News - What do Cosmeeting and Creative Beauty look like this year?
Pradip Bala - The year 2014 promises to be a great edition. There will be a reinforced international presence with many foreign pavilion: USA, Italy, China, Taiwan, South Korea... As we are the first cosmetic trade event in France, Cosmeeting and Creative Beauty Paris are the ideal spot to showcase the French expertise led by many institutions, who have made of our shows an unavoidable appointment: Cosmetic Valley, Cosmed, Cosmebio, Ecocert, etc.
Early September, our shows give the starting signal of the Beauty Week, which mobilizes the entire cosmetic industry in September, with four events following one another during the 2nd half of the month: Cosmeeting & Creative Beauty Paris, MCB by Beauté Sélection and the Victoires de la Beauté.
Creative Beauty Paris is establishing itself more and more as a platform for full service solutions for the creation of cosmetic products or line extensions. Where can be found major industry players and development teams, who reinvent the sector every year.
Cosmeeting Paris enables to discover brands that will make the buzz tomorrow: more than 150 brands come together to approach European distribution. But very often our exhibitors also experience wonderful stories with distributors from Asia, the Middle East, the United States or even Africa.
More than ever, we want to emphasis on the expertise of our exhibitors and foster contacts between visitors. For the second consecutive year, we offer them a personalized tour guide. With this guide – identifying a selection of exhibitors and their location on the show – the visitor can easily target the companies answering his criteria. In the same vein, we have set up moments of exchanges between key visitors and exhibitors, around networking lunches.
Premium Beauty News - The Zoom area and the Beauty Challenger Awards, dedicated to start-up’s in the French market are traditionally two highlights of Cosmeeting. How are they evolving?
Pradip Bala - The Zoom area is a beautiful showcase for innovation in cosmetics. It truly reflects the creativity and inventiveness of the numerous enthusiasts in our industry. Nearly 45 brands will be present in this area that enables to take the pulse of the industry and discover the players who will act as growth drivers for distributors and the whole sector. You will find brands that make us see Beauty differently, inviting stakeholders to consider the beauty industry differently, to rewrite the codes.
But this year, we will go beyond the Zoom concept, towards a new area called Cosmeeting Selective, which will hosts already established selective brands wishing to extend their reach. Already well developed in their respective markets these brands are seeking to conquer new countries. They will be able in this area, to take part to scheduled appointments with key buyers.
In parallel, we will be organizing the 9th edition of the Beauty Challenger Awards. And there are lots of new features for 2014! Jury members will consist of major players in Europe (Intertrade, Galeries Lafayette, Marks & Spencer, Isolée), but also a fine representation of the Asian continent with the distributors Beyorg, Chainol and Rebeco, to name a few. Middle East beauty leaders also answered the call: Gulf Beauty International, Salam Studio & Stores and Chalhoub Group, among others.
For the 3rd consecutive year, our partnership with the Victoires de la Beauté makes it possible for the winners of the Beauty Challenger Awards to enter this competition where they can test their products in real conditions with consumers. A ideal way of validating the choice of professionals through public recognition.
We will also be inaugurating this year the Prix de l’Internaute with our partner Beauteprivee.com. Where a panel of online consumers will vote for their favourite brand. This is totally new.
Premium Beauty News - What are the novelties at Creative Beauty Paris for this 2014 edition?
Pradip Bala - The featured theme, this year will be provided by the BBLAB, whose theme will focus on hair care. From Ingredients to formulation, players in the BBLAB will put forward their solutions meeting the requirements of large cosmetic groups, who are constantly active in this segment. These experts will also attend conferences, where they will contextualize their expertise and shed light on their innovations.
In connection with the BBLAB area, we will be inaugurating a new prize this year,: the Advanced Ingredient Award, rewarding the most innovative ingredient, evaluated by a panel of R & D and Product Development experts: Bruno Bernard (L’Oréal), Xavier Ormancey (Yves Rocher), Brian Feinmann (Jean-Claude Biguine), Laurent Misischi (Bumble & Bumble), Paolo Goi (Davines), Élodie Miard (Dessange International) and Tom Brooks (Leonor Greyl). A jury of choice for a superb first edition!
Premium Beauty News - This year was marked by international development with the first edition of China Beauty Expo, since its acquisition, and the launch of Beyond Beauty ASEAN, which will take place in Bangkok from 18 to 20 September 2014.
Pradip Bala - This is a huge step forward in the beauty industry! We are strengthening our presence on a market with great growth opportunities. The Informa Group, Beyond Beauty Events and local organizers (Baiwen for China Beauty Expo and IMPACT for Beyond Beauty ASEAN) are now moving forward hand-in-hand, with as a main objective, to offer new business solutions to beauty players in Europe, China and Asia.
More precisely, China Beauty Expo is now more specifically dedicated to the Asian market to offer the best possible gateway to the great Chinese market. As for Beyond Beauty ASEAN in Bangkok, it strengthens our visibility in Southeast Asia and offers more targeted solutions to brands and suppliers looking for a business platform with a regional influence.
With the launch in Shanghai and Bangkok of platforms like the Zoom or the Beauty Challenger Awards - known in Paris for over 10 years - we offer our European exhibitors an opportunity to conquer new markets through joint exhibition offers. We hope we will be able to establish in the future more similar bridges between these three events.
