MIFF,  one of the world's best furniture fairs

Malaysia has some catching up to do with the likes of Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, but I believe that there is enough home-grown fervour to do so, given time. The entries into the MIFF FDC competition (previously Ideation) provided a mere glimpse of this.

However, despite these faults, MIFF remains one of the world's best furniture fairs. I quantify 'best' loosely in terms of its services, reach, and sense of community - and in its potential. When UBM bought the show last year, I immediately saw how the event giant's strengths would benefit MIFF - with a massively enhanced visitor database, for starters.

However, I also feared that a change of ownership might mean and end to those near-intangible strengths that gave MIFF its identity - its people and methods, well honed through nearly 20 years of exhibition hosting.  ekonglong furniture

It's now clear that UBM has ambitions for MIFF - including the addition of a new 30,000 sq m exhibition centre at the aforementioned MECC site. The presence of Malaysia's sizeable Muar Furniture Group this edition lent a great deal of validity to this venue (which was near-empty last year) and to MIFF's expansion plans overall, and gave visitors plenty of new faces to see on-site.

And, through it all, the approach remains the same. "Why change a winning team?" Says UBM Asia CEO Jime Essink, when I explain my prior concerns over the handover. He tells me that UBM has brought newer marketing methods to the show, and, obviously, wider reach - but that MIFF is already "very good at what it does". What it needs, he contends, is space - and he is confident that once the appropriate exhibition vacancies are established, MIFF will quickly become the undisputed - if not sole - furniture marketing platform in Malaysia.

That's not to mention SEAFIE, UBM's new September event, an import/export show designed to reach the upper-middle echelons of Malaysia's domestic market - and those of its ASEAN neighbours. According to Jime, there's a market for high-end German kitchens in South-east Asia, and SEAFIE will neatly cross over with the final day of UBM's Goliath Furniture China in Shanghai.

As it stands,  MIFF is providing a good home to Malaysia's few design-oriented initiatives, as well as its best-established players. Given the evidence - and the Malaysian Government's lofty ambitions for the furniture sector - it will become even more so in coming years.