Quick takes

Beijing begins its climb down

Those rather brave anti-COVID restriction protests in China appear to have paid off. China's national health authority (NHC) has relaxed the national COVID rules, “in the strongest sign yet that China is preparing its people to live with the disease,” according to Reuters. Mildly infected people can now recover at home and some parts of the country are dropping use of the health tracking app.

A letter from Michael Duck, new UFI president

In his first official communication as UFI president, Informa Markets’ Michael Duck succinctly outlines the task at hand of the global exhibition industry. “We are going to be rebuilding our industry, revitalising it, reigniting the spark in our hopes and plans and dreams.”

Malaysian event tech company acquired

Evenesis, an events technology company has completed its acquisition of Malaysian tech startup Txtsy which specialises in “fully integrated online and offline events.”

Txsty was founded two years ago during COVID and has served some of leading exhibitions in the region such as the Malaysian International Furniture Fair.

Easyfairs acquires plastics trade fair

This is not an Asian deal, but it is good to see the gears of event M&A starting to turn again. Easyfairs announced the acquisition of the Kuteno trade fair in Germany adding to its portfolio of events in the plastics industry.