CEO Sermkhun Kunawong said CMO had initiated its own event brands, like the Hua Hin Music Festival and Thailand Karaoke World Competition, held annually and ensuring a steadier revenue flow than working only on a project-to-project basis.

"Due to a downswing in revenue in event organising, we tried to sustain our business by building our own event brands," he said.

CMO's first annual event brand was the Wat Arun Festival AD 1882 six years ago. But the event, staged at Wat Arun in Bangkok, was cancelled after the company made a combined loss of Bt7 million in the first two years.

More recently, CMO tried the concept again by organising the Hua Hin Jazz Festival in June this year. The firm has scheduled the festival until 2008, Sermkhun said.

He said promoting the festival at the Siam Paragon shopping complex for two weeks before the festival began had been key to its success.

"We created a modern image for people who are fascinated by jazz music," Sermkhun said.

After the festival the company received very good feedback from participants aged between 23 and 45, he said.

In August CMO organised the Thailand stage of the Karaoke World Championship in Bangkok after buying the rights to hold the contest from the KWC Organisation in Finland.

While this year's event was to pick winners at the national level to compete in the final round in Finland, next year the finals will be moved to Bangkok for the first time. The Karaoke World contest will be held every year until 2008, Sermkhun said.

However, CMO is not neglecting business from one-off events, such as the ICT Expo and the Land Rover G4 launch.

Sermkhun said that though local business was still good, CMO wanted to reduce risk by expanding into other countries. For a start, it is keen on starting operations in Cambodia.

"The company plans to set up a joint venture with a local organiser there," Sermkhun said but declined to give more details.

"The reasons for choosing Cambodia are that it's not far from Thailand, has a similar culture and is a popular tourist destination," he said.

CMO will focus on the MICE (meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition) market as its first priority area and will target clients who would like to hold events in Siem Reap.

"We are a listed company, so we have to seek ways to make our business as sustainable as possible," Sermkhun said.

CMO has posted revenue of Bt341.9 million in the first six months of the year, compared with revenue of Bt511 million for all of 2005. For the full year, Sermkhun projects revenue growth of 10 per cent.

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation