JAIPUR, India – When I handed my passport to the stern-faced woman at the Mumbai airport immigration desk in February, she leafed through the booklet in a serious, meticulous inspection and asked, “Is this your first time in India?” “Yes,” I replied, adding, “Many surprises await.” Her pursed lips broke out into a big smile as she quickly stamped the pages and shooed me through the passage to baggage claim and, what for me, was the great unknown. I was almost at the end of the longest trek I’d ever taken for anything in this industry: 10,816 miles (one-way from San Francisco-Jaipur) with nearly 20 hours of sitting in airline seats, punctuated by occasional treks through massive airport terminals. The destination: StoneMart 2024 in Jaipur. And was it worth it? For me, yes. For you … we’ll get to that later. I’ve been asked to attend hard-surface events in India. Frankly, I wasn’t all that keen on very long flights and carving that much time out of the regular work schedule. Maybe a not-too-small fear of culture shock also flavored the usual decline. When the question came up last summer, though, I couldn’t offer up the usual arguments, given that I was at the Xiamen Stone Fair in China at the time. This time, I couldn’t credibly say no. I began planning for what turned out to be a longer trip than I’d figured.1 One of my business colleagues in India referred to general society there as organized chaos, and he’s not joking when it comes to the roads. It’s the world’s most-populous country, and it often seems most of them are headed to your destination in any manner of foot- and engine-powered vehicle. Horn-blowing is mandatory to note any hazard, including me when I made a mad dash across boulevards. Once I made it across the street and to the convention center, though, the atmosphere changed. While the setup days were a bit crazy (as they are with any trade show anywhere), StoneMart offered an interesting – and well-organized – look at the market in India. At just under 150,000 ft² of net exhibit area, StoneMart is nowhere near the leviathan status of something like the Xiamen or Marmomac events. However, it’s a show that services its regional area – the state of Rajasthan, home to hundreds of quarriers, producers and exporters of natural stone. (Rajasthan is also the home of several large quartz-surface manufacturers, but less than 2% of StoneMart’s exhibitors offered any man-made surfaces.) Offering natural stone for export is a market that StoneMart wants to expand, including a large outdoor area for block and slab exhibits. The atmosphere is much lower-key than major events; there’s plenty of see, but not the overwhelming aisle-after-aisle, hall-after-hall effect from the big shows. Rajasthan is also home to plenty of stone craft businesses. StoneMart even offered a special area to show the handcrafted traditional and abstract art in marble and granite. StoneMart also services the region by offering tooling and machinery. And, with rare exception, the vendors of anything from blades to CNC saws to quarry equipment sold products made in India. For someone used to U.S. and European trade events, the massive amount of domestic hard goods in a show is surprising. It shouldn’t be, however, given India’s huge hard-surfaces industry; less than 10% of the exhibitors came from outside the country. International buyers, though, are high on the list for StoneMart to attract. The turnout of U.S. citizens was sparse (which could signal a real opportunity at the next event in 2026) but those from other Asian countries appeared among the local crowd. International travel for trade is still gearing up after COVID-19 and turnout will continue to improve. I found StoneMart to be a well-attended show with plenty of attendees looking to get down to business with vendors. Stone Update had its own booth as the show, and I noticed less of the aimless trade-show wanderers and more of those looking to find U.S. customers. StoneMart is one of two major hard-surface shows staged in India, occurring every two years. It alternates with Stona, held early in odd-numbered years in Bengaluru. Whether either one is right for you to attend will depend on what you’d like to find. If it’s a more-direct connection for materials – especially in natural stone – get ready for a long ride across the planet and quick steps crossing the street. 1And, oh yeah, my trip being longer than expected: I patched together two budget one-way fares that included stops in Doha, Qatar; Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi in India; and Seoul (Incheon) in South Korea. By the time I got back to San Francisco, I’d circumnavigated the globe and logged 18,615 miles in the air, including one flight of just one minute under 15 hours. Phineas Fogg took a lot longer, but he had more fun.