Mobile-first approach

Reconnect by Z Empire is a first-of-its-kind trade event held by the beach in Greece that truly mixed business with pleasure

Post-pandemic, the consumer electronics industry is back with a bang, literally!

As the markets begin to open up and in-person events become a norm again, Reconnect — a signature event by Z Empire — opened its doors in Greece with its first high-tech meeting by the beach. The brainchild of Sam Nasr, CEO at Z Empire Global Ltd, Reconnect aims to facilitate and connect its partners across the world without any limitations of time or space.

Several exhibitors from across the Europe gathered at the Grand Resort Lagonissi, Athens, from September 28 until October 1 to showcase their offerings in the consumer electronics space, mainly mobile phones.

From decision makers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors to restores, the options were myriad to choose from and expand their businesses. Some were looking to reconnect, most were looking at new markets.

Over the period of three days at the Athenian shore, there was many familiar faces for most of them, happy to see their industry peers in-person post-pandemic, giving them a chance to reconnect. Which is the reason that this show is aptly called Reconnect.

Speaking about the origin and concept of such an event, Peggy Sotiropoulou, Sales Manager, at Z Empire Global (marketing and event organising), pointed out that Reconnect is one-of-a-kind event with a beach setup, giving the exhibitors and visitors the ease of conducting business in multiple places besides the venue. Mixing business with pleasure wouldn’t be an understatement here.

We sat down with Sotiropoulou who took us through Z Empire’s goal of aiding the companies wanting to spread their wings globally in the world of business.

Tell us about the inception of Z Empire? How did it all begin and what is the crux of the organisation?

The inception of the idea began a year ago in Greece. We have been attending and seeing a lot of events all over the world for quite some time. In the past, we did events for the consumer electronics industry, but they were mainly conferences. Now, we have bought it to a completely different level. We were just doing the conferences, a few meetings here and there, but this one is huge for us and for the first time.

Our CEO Sam Nasr wanted to start something by the beach. At first, we were wondering how can and where can we do it. But slowly as we started the process, things started to fall in place. We wanted to bring the exhibitions out of confined spaces and into the open where everyone could meet at their time and their space. This was innovative and our clients appreciate that we have bought something new to the events and conferences industry.

Now, why did you choose Greece as your base for the event?

We love Greece because it has everything. It’s a paradise with its landscapes, the Aegean Sea, and top it with the weather. We want to promote this beautiful country and make it a business hub. There are so many countries popular for their trade events but nothing in Greece. We are like ‘Why don’t we bring innovation here’?

I see that Z Empire is a lot about B2B business as well as lifestyle. How did you come up with that concept and how did you think that this concept would work?

When you are representing your business, there are a whole lot of factors that you are looked upon on: your lifestyle, how you walk, how you talk and the way you present yourselves. The first impression determines who you are, how you are dressed, your manners and everything. So, this is very important in business and especially in huge companies. You have to combine lifestyle as well with your business. This is the philosophy of Z Empire as well. Thus, we also conduct fashion shows with our events to bring in a holistic approach on how you conduct your business.

Coming to Dubai, what are the kinds of event portfolio that you are going to come up with?

In Dubai, we may continue the same kind of events — consumer electronics and lifestyle — but we are also ideating on new concepts that would be relevant to the market and the buyers and consumers.

At Reconnect in Greece, most of the profiling was from Europe so are you going to look into other markets as well in the near future?

Continuing, we do have a strong presence in Dubai as well as in India, plus clients in Africa, Americas and Asia. The event could be much bigger but despite travel restrictions, the event was a huge success. We hope next year Reconnect in Greece would be bigger.