THE AEFI TECHNICAL COMMITTEE AT WORK ON “SECURITY AND ACCESS CONTROL IN EXHIBITION DISTRICTS FOLLOWING RECENT REGULATIONS”

AEFI’s Technical Committee, coordinated by Giovanni Giuliani, met in Bologna, at BolognaFiere, with 38 representatives of member districts taking part.
Central to the meeting was “Security and access control in exhibition districts following recent regulations” in light of the “Gabrielli Circular” and of further implementation circulars from the Italian Ministry of the Interior – Department of the Fire Brigade, Public Rescue and Civil Defence of 2017; Circular of Ministry of the Interior – Minister’s Office of 28 July 2017.
A contribution from lawyer Roberto Gobbi, an expert in the sector, dealt with the regulatory framework for events and trade fairs as well as issues concerning competences and involvement in trade fairs of sworn and other security guards, porters and stewards. Mr Gobbi highlighted the fact that the relevant regulations define the limits to the interventions and activity of each figure and, in his contribution, focused especially on the possibility of employing Sworn Security Guards solely for activities of prevention and protection with reference to assets and on the penal consequences resulting from incorrect use of such figures, on the lack of a clear definition regarding the activity of porters and on the ambiguity of employing stewards during trade fairs since, according to regulations, they deal solely with supervising sporting events.
To better illustrate issues and corresponding problems, two case histories were presented: by Mr Fernando Malfatti, concerning Veronafiere, and by Mr Giacomo Lucchini, Chief Operating and Services Officer for Fiera Milano, concerning Artigiano in Fiera 2017.
Particular attention was paid to the centralised management of control and emergency facilities in order to make interventions more rapid and effective, to the importance of visitor control, also carried out with metal detectors, and to the separation of pedestrian walkways from vehicle routes.
The analysis will continue in the coming months with the presentation of further case histories.
The meeting was also an occasion to say goodbye to colleagues Giorgio Gajer and Andrea Alfieri, who have contributed to the work of the Technical Commission for many years.
AEFI – Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, a private non-profit Association, was established in 1983 with the goal of generating synergies between the most important Italian exhibition districts. AEFI would like to be seen as a privileged partner for operators and institutions alike, and its role is to support members through the development of activities and programmes in the sphere of training, marketing, promotion and research, as well as to provide services for trade fairs through the activities of its Committees: Exhibition Hub Technical Committee, Legal-Administrative Committee, Internationalisation Committee and Trade Fairs Network Committee.
On the internationalization front, AEFI supports members thanks to agreements with strategic markets. To date, partnerships have been agreed with Iran, Taiwan, Lebanon, India and Thailand, with AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, and with CENTREX, the International Exhibition Statistics Union. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with SACE and SIMEST.
AEFI has promoted the foundation of ISFCert, the Certification Institute for Exhibition Industry Statistics which, through rigorous methodologies, enables Italian organisers to present and recognise standardised data, in the name of transparency and reliability.
AEFI represents Italian trade fairs in UFI – Union of International Fairs. Chaired by Ettore Riello, AEFI includes 35 member exhibition districts, which organise over 1,000 events a year over an overall exhibition area of 4.2 million square metres. Nearly all international and national trade fairs which take place each year in Italy are held in AEFI-member exhibition districts.