“There are a couple of things,” Ferguson states. “You need to come and talk to us first. We have quite an exciting program of conferences and seminars and briefings that are designed to help the B2B networking process.

“There’s no point in going down there and expecting business to fall into your lap.

“This isn’t like opening a shop in Westfield the week before Christmas and hoping people are going to walk past and see what’s in the window. You need to prepare beforehand.

“You’ll need the collateral that people can take away with them.”

Ferguson noted that buyers, chiefs and foreign defence personnel don’t have time to walk around and speak with over 600 exhibitors.

“You need to set up a program of meetings,” he said. “You’ll need to target very carefully and be in the face of your prospects.”

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Ferguson stated that the conference program is the perfect place to start, either as a speaker or an attendee, to get in front of the right people.

Ferguson also recommended the Avalon 2017 app.

“You can download that on to your smartphone, you can look up the individuals or the companies you want to reach out to and contact them through the app," he said.

“What we’re doing is making it as easy as possible for people to do business. We want to get the people who’ve got the money in front of the people who’ve got the product.”