Building Business in Mexcio

Seven months into his role as General Director for RX Mexico, Luiz Bellini shares his plans to accelerate the growth of opportunities for RX’s people and customers, and to drive business generation for the short and long term.

It has been just over six months since I moved to Mexico with my family to lead RX's business unit here. I remain excited and honored to take on this exciting challenge. Mexican culture is rich, and the people are kind and welcoming. I am excited to draw on my achievements in Brazil to contribute to the growth and continued success of our Mexican business.

My previous experience in event organization, digital marketing, communication, e-commerce, and entrepreneurship has provided a solid foundation for leading and developing innovative strategies that accelerate the company's growth. I am now applying my knowledge and skills to improve efficiency in sales, marketing, and operations - what I call SMO Efficiency.

I believe it is essential to strengthen relationships with customers and employees to deliver projects that drive the company's long-term success, without missing out on short-term victories. In the case of Mexico, it was necessary to seize the great opportunity of nearshoring some of our business operations from the US. Since arriving here, I have also been expanding connections with my colleagues in the USA and China in order to explore synergies and potential joint events. The opportunities are significant.

Adapting to change

Everything evolves rapidly, especially with digitization. The pace of change in digital and industry is huge, and Latin America is no exception. I have seen an accelerating shift in the adoption of digital and data analytics in various sectors, including at trade fairs. The markets that are adapting more quickly are those that are leveraging these trends to modernize their operations, improve the customer experience, and maintain competitiveness in an ever-evolving environment. This is true for all RX businesses worldwide, and especially in Mexico where we are proud to have the best deployment of badge scanning technology. That's why we continue to invest in new businesses and technologies, as well as in training our people to achieve our strategic and global vision.

Market strengths and opportunties

RX Mexico's strengths include our solid reputation in the market, our extensive network of contacts, and our portfolio of eleven high-quality events that meet the needs of different industries. Beyond all this, the great difference in our company lies in our people, their knowledge, and their great technical capacity to deliver value to our exhibitors and visitors.

There are of course areas for improvement, such as the implementation of new processes and a new organizational structure to grow more rapidly. The last seven months have been dedicated to preparing the company for growth. Now, I believe we are ready to accelerate.

We are reinforcing our digital and data tools to help generate business between exhibitors and visitors; adding value to companies' participation along with an improvement in the customer experience; expanding our presence in new markets; and diversifying our portfolio of products and services.

Data driven event solutions

One of the key trends in the exhibition industry is technological transformation to support the face to face experience. This is a differentiating factor for RX in Mexico (and indeed in all countries where we operate). The technological landscape in Mexico is very promising, with a growing interest in adopting disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and augmented reality. At RX Mexico, we stay updated with the technologies used in various parts of the world, thanks to our global presence. This enables our exhibitors' and attendees’ to continually improve their event experiences by adopting innovative technologies for business growth.

Over the last three years, we have invested in digital solutions that add value to our exhibitors. For example, companies participating in our fairs have access to (1) an exhibitor dashboard with real-time data, (2) lead capture apps, and (3) an exclusive digital profile highlighting their products and services, which are recommended to visitors according to their interests. The term "selling square meters" no longer exists at RX – we provide our exhibitors with a complete event participation package, filled with data intelligence for business generation.

These are just a few examples of how our business has evolved from simply ‘selling space’ to offering complete face to face and digital solutions for building leads and connections. This is what we are in the business of building businesses for.

Short-term growth, and new horizons

When there is a change in leadership, as happened here in mid-2023, the most important thing in the short term is to prepare a structure for growth, ensuring we have the best talent available to help implement a winning culture. In the long term, it is necessary to create opportunities for people to develop personally and professionally which in turn will build corporate maturity.

In practical terms, in the short term, RX Mexico aims to: (1) improve the operational efficiency of our events through the implementation of more agile and effective processes, (2) increase the participation and commitment of exhibitors and visitors by offering innovative services and solutions that add value to their participation in our fairs, (3) strengthen our relationships with strategic partners and key customers to ensure the continuity and growth of our events, and (4) develop and implement effective marketing and promotion strategies to increase the visibility and impact of our events in the market.

With all this in place, everyone benefits: our people, our clients, our partners, and our visitors. We will generate more opportunities with the expansion of our events portfolio, through the identification and exploration of new growth opportunities in the Mexican and Latin American market. And, most importantly, we will continue to promote a collaborative and high-performance work environment within the RX Mexico team, encouraging the professional and personal development of our people.

Luiz Bellini is the General Director of RX Mexico. He has over 20 years of experience in events, marketing, e-commerce, and communication. He holds a degree in International Relations, an MBA, and executive education in digital marketing and technological entrepreneurship.