On the afternoon of September 17, as core thematic tracks of the first China Green Convention & Exhibition Conference (CGCEC 2026), two parallel sessions on green display and green industry-education integration continued at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Tianjin). More than a hundred representatives from exhibition value-chain service providers, universities, venue operators and industry associations attended.
The event was co-hosted by the International Convention and Exhibition Economy Committee (ICEEC) of the China International Economic Cooperation Association, the Convention and Exhibition Work Committee of the National Federation of Urban Industrial Goods Trading Centers, the Global Expo Integrated Media Platform, and the China Green Convention & Exhibition Service Platform. It was organized by the National Industry-Education Integration Community for High-Quality Convention and Exhibition Development, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Exhibition Education Alliance, and the Green Convention and Exhibition Innovation Center.
The venue of the parallel sessions
Among the conference's most closely followed breakout forums, the sessions were tightly and logically structured: from benchmarks of green practice at the world's leading exhibitions, to the strategic direction of global net-zero transformation, to the commercial adoption of new green materials and equipment, and finally to a long-term mechanism for talent development and industry-education collaboration. Together they offered delegates a complete and actionable roadmap for the exhibition industry's green transformation.
Originally scheduled to end at 17:00, the sessions ran until 17:30 amid enthusiastic discussion; even as the venue closed, many listeners stayed to talk with the speakers. During the event, corporate representatives proactively approached faculty members to discuss curriculum development, student training bases, bringing technology into campuses, joint research projects, standards development and teacher training, reaching a number of preliminary cooperation agreements and bringing green industry and education resources together on the spot. Many industry colleagues unable to attend later expressed regret at having missed a highly practical feast of ideas.
The first segment focused on green display. Li Qi, Executive Director of Beijing Pico Expo Co., Ltd. and Vice Chairman of the Beijing International Convention and Exhibition Industry Association; Huang Yuan, Researcher at the CCPIT Commercial Industry Committee and expert of the China Working Group for Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE); Zhang Zhenqiang, General Manager of Hangzhou Bailuda New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.; and Sun Xiaoqiu, Chairman of Changzhou Hawk Display System Co., Ltd., shared cases of industry implementation.
Li Qi, Executive Director of Beijing Pico and Vice Chairman of the Beijing International Convention and Exhibition Industry Association
Speaking on How Exhibition Professionals Can Practice Green Exhibitions, Li Qi shared the full-chain green experience of the 2024 Sibos in Beijing. One of the world's three top financial gatherings alongside the World Economic Forum in Davos and the G20 Finance Summit, Sibos came to the Chinese mainland for the first time in 44 years, and its green-event standards represent the highest level of practice in the global exhibition industry.
He broke down the project's carbon-reduction pathways across five dimensions: travel and transport, stand construction, public services, catering, and venue electricity. For transport, official shuttle buses and dedicated offsetting of residual emissions cut per-capita carbon emissions by 10% compared with the previous edition. In construction, traditional high-pollution materials such as PVC and KT boards were completely banned in favor of ENF-grade eco-friendly particleboard, vertical-corrugated plant-fiber board and formaldehyde-free tea-scented board; reusable meeting facilities were handed over to the China National Convention Center after the event for use at subsequent exhibitions. For venue services, lightweight solutions such as folded paper screens and osmanthus-and-greenery landscaping balanced environmental performance with attendee experience. The project's green practices were highly praised by Beijing's leading officials, and the experience was promoted citywide as a model for green management of major capital events. Li Qi noted that green exhibitions are not synonymous with being crude; through modular design and creative expression, striking visual effects can be achieved while meeting carbon-reduction goals.
Huang Yuan, Researcher at the CCPIT Commercial Industry Committee and expert of the China Working Group for Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE)
Huang Yuan delivered a presentation titled Toward Net-Zero Carbon Exhibitions: Practice and Exploration of the Industry's Green and Low-Carbon Transformation. Starting from the origins of global net-zero action, she introduced the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative launched in 2021 under the UN framework by JMIC together with international organizations including UFI and AIPC, which set the industry's shared goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. She pointed out that China's exhibition industry is moving from scattered, individual green measures toward systematic whole-life-cycle carbon management, with digital tools and international standards becoming core supports.
She highlighted Chinese experts' breakthroughs in international exhibition standardization: the ISO/TC 354 working group on business events is convened by a Chinese expert and has begun developing international standards on terminology, waste management and PCO services, as China shifts from a follower of international standards to an important participant in rule-making. At the event, Huang Yuan also officially launched the call for Outstanding Practical Cases of Net Zero Carbon Events in China's Exhibition Industry (2026), soliciting replicable and scalable net-zero cases across the industry.
Zhang Zhenqiang, General Manager of Hangzhou Bailuda New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.
In a presentation titled Paper-Based Green Display, a Promising Future, Zhang Zhenqiang demonstrated the large-scale application of paper-based plant-fiber materials in exhibition settings. The industry once regarded green materials as expensive, weak and impractical, he said, but through sustained R&D, Bailuda developed vertical-corrugated paper-based materials with B1 fire resistance, long-span load-bearing capacity, and waterproof and durable performance, fundamentally overcoming the engineering limits of paper.
Comparative data on site showed that paper-based materials of the same specification weigh only one-sixth as much as traditional wood boards, cut construction labor costs by 83%, lower transport costs by 70%, shorten construction time by 50%, raise processing efficiency by 80%, and are 100% recyclable into paper; the overall cost of a custom-built booth can fall by 30%, and reuse costs by 70%. The materials have been used in hundreds of projects, including the Waste-Free Living Pavilion at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Huawei Developer Conference, the SF Net-Zero Exhibition, the CITIC Bank showroom and the Shanghai Daily Necessities Fair. Zhang said paper-based green display is not a temporary environmental gimmick but a mature solution with a complete value chain ready for large-scale promotion.
Sun Xiaoqiu, Chairman of Changzhou Hawk Display System Co., Ltd.
Sun Xiaoqiu unveiled the third generation of green, eco-friendly display equipment: an integrated modular rapid-assembly display system. He vividly described it as making booth building as simple as playing with Lego: all components use standardized designs and can be quickly joined without complex on-site work, and after the event every part can be recovered and reused. This fundamentally addresses the large amounts of construction waste generated by one-off traditional booths and upgrades the green concept from material substitution to system reuse, representing an important direction for green exhibition equipment.
The second segment focused on green industry-education collaboration.
Yang Qi, Director of the Exhibition Research Institute of Tianjin University of Commerce and Secretary-General of the National Modern Exhibition Industry-Education Integration Community
Professor Yang Qi presented Pathways of Industry-Education Integration for Green Exhibition Talent Development. Starting from top-level designs such as the national 15th Five-Year Plan carbon-peaking action plan and the Ministry of Commerce's Opinions on Expanding Green Trade, he noted that one of the biggest bottlenecks in the industry's green transformation is the talent gap, with growing demand for interdisciplinary green exhibition professionals who understand design, operations and carbon accounting. He analyzed challenges such as the difficulty of integrating cross-disciplinary knowledge, the disconnect between theory and practice, and fragmented curricula, and called for a green exhibition education system spanning the whole value chain. Through joint industry-education development of industry colleges and practice bases and joint development of textbooks and curricula, interdisciplinary talents with both exhibition expertise and green-development thinking can be cultivated, precisely aligning the education chain with the industry chain.
Liang Jianfeng, core member of the National Industry-Education Integration Community for High-Quality Convention and Exhibition Development and Director of the Supervision and Research Office of Beijing Foreign Trade School
Liang Jianfeng spoke on Promoting Exhibition Industry-Education Integration Through Community Building, systematically reviewing the community's achievements. As a national collaboration platform for exhibition industry-education integration, the community now brings together nearly 50 universities, vocational colleges, industry associations and leading exhibition enterprises across the country's core exhibition cities. It has established a number of industry-education education vehicles such as the Capital Convention and Exhibition Service Management College, supported the development of eight professional textbooks, launched the country's first mutual-recognition program in the exhibition field covering vocational skill certificates, enterprise certification, professional titles and international certificates, and organized training for more than a thousand participants.
Liang said that next the community will make green exhibitions a core focus, connect with green-technology and green-materials enterprises, and work with universities to develop specialized green-exhibition courses and training systems to supply the industry with a steady stream of talent.
The roundtable dialogue
In the roundtable that followed, moderated by Professor Yang Qi, exhibition-program leaders from Beijing City College, Tianjin College of Commerce, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication and Hebei University of Environmental Engineering, together with green-materials representatives such as Zhang Zhenqiang, Liang Jianfeng and Dong Jun, Deputy Director of the Green Convention and Exhibition Innovation Center, discussed how green exhibitions can align industry needs with talent cultivation, how new green materials and equipment can enter university teaching systems, and how industry-education integration can help small and medium-sized exhibition enterprises manage the cost of green transformation.
Faculty members shared real pain points and ongoing exploration in building green-exhibition curricula, expressing the hope that more green-exhibition enterprises would engage deeply in industry-education cooperation; corporate representatives responded on the spot, welcoming long-term partnerships to jointly develop courses and build training bases and turn frontline green practice into vivid teaching content.
Dong Jun put forward a theory of four sources for green exhibition development: systematic efforts are needed from the sources of policy, standards, materials and education—the core directions the field must continue to deepen. He stressed that the Green Convention and Exhibition Innovation Center will serve as a bridge, opening channels between enterprises and universities and promoting two-way empowerment and coordinated development of industry and education.
Group photo of the roundtable guests
Guests spoke freely from their own practice, and interaction continued nonstop; the one-hour dialogue was extended amid warm applause and follow-up questions, and listeners were still gathered at the stage as the venue closed. Delegates said the well-coordinated sessions—from international benchmarks to local practice, and from technology and products to talent cultivation—thoroughly explained why, how and by whom green exhibitions should be developed, making for a substantive, high-quality exchange. Going forward, the organizers will continue to gather resources from across the green-exhibition value chain, promote the implementation of technological achievements and collaborative talent development, and provide solid support for the comprehensive green transformation of China's exhibition industry.
Ying Lijun, Vice Chair of ICEEC and Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the China Convention and Exhibition Society
Ying Lijun, Vice Chair of ICEEC and Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the China Convention and Exhibition Society, hosted the event.