OFI is very pleased to announce the programme for the 3rd Aquatic Industry Convention, which OFI is co-organising with CIPS at the China International Pet Show in Guangzhou, 12-14 November 2026.
This year's theme is "Transforming the Aquarium Industry: Data, Technology and Retail Innovation". Our industry is changing fast: how fish are bred and traded, how customers find and buy them, and how the rules we work under are being written. We have built three afternoons around those changes, with speakers from around the world.
Thursday 12 November - Markets, Regulation & Industry Direction
I'll open the convention with the state of the global aquarium industry in 2026, followed by OFI Vice-President Svein A. Fosså's global regulatory update. We then hear market outlooks for China (Professor Zaizhong Chen, Shanghai Ocean University), the USA (Jay Springer, Pet Supplies Plus, joining live online) and Europe, where Nathalie Gamain, OFI's EU Affairs Officer, looks at what EU regulatory trends mean for exporters.
Friday 13 November - Retail Excellence & Commercial Innovation
We open with the presentation of two new OFI awards: the OFI Aquarium Retail Excellence Award and the OFI Emerging Aquatic Species Award. The afternoon then features Ibrahim Mefire Kouotou (Managing Director, EHEIM), Balázs Farkas (Green Aqua), Oh Sang-jin (AquaTale Korea), butterfly koi breeder Zhang Kai, Shamjith S (Sreepadma Aqua Flora) and Lin Jinqing (Aquascape Café) on the retail and commercial models that are working.
Saturday 14 November - Technology, AI & Social Media
Our final session looks at where innovation is taking us: social media and digital commerce (Danilo Ronchi, DaniReef), AI in shrimp production (Leo Kuo, ShareGuru) and in aquarium retail (James Lin, Creative Way Global), sustainable farming with aquaponics and solar (Ran Epstein, Colors Farm), goldfish breeding (He Chuan, Beijing Fisheries Technology Extension Station) and commercial clownfish breeding (Liam Hsueh, STB).
Each afternoon runs from 13:30 to 17:30 and finishes with a live panel discussion, with live English-Mandarin translation throughout. Entry is free for all CIPS attendees.
Last call for species nominations: nominations for the OFI Emerging Aquatic Species Award close on Monday 12 October. If you're breeding or producing something new with real commercial potential, now is the time to put it forward. To nominate, contact the OFI Secretariat at secretariat@ofish.org.
I would like to thank CIPS, our speakers and our sponsor Kamihata for making this possible, and I look forward to seeing many of you in Guangzhou.
Full programme and speakers: Click Here
Register for CIPS: Click Here
Happy fish keeping,
Shane Willis
