IN THE REPORT “TRADE FAIRS: PRIDE MADE IN ITALY” BROADCAST BY UNOMATTINA ESTATE, ETTORE RIELLO, CHAIRMAN OF AEFI, AND LOREDANA SARTI, GENERAL SECRETARY OF AEFI, TALK ABOUT ITALIAN TRADE FAIRS ON THE OCCASION OF THE THIRD GLOBAL EXHIBITIONS DAY
The 6 June 2018 broadcast of Unomattina Estate on Rai 1 dedicated a major segment to the third Global Exhibitions Day and the strategic role of Italian trade fairs in the national economy and in launching new and young talents.
In the interview, Ettore Riello, Chairman of AEFI-Associazione Esposizione e Fiere Italiane, underlined the role and power of Italian trade fairs, and reviewed the figures of the Italian exhibitions industry. As an industry worth around 60 billion euro a year, trade fairs are a booster for the economy, thanks also to their ability to adapt to the needs of the consumers and a continuously changing marketplace. and their ability to contribute to the growth of Italian excellence with the innovative intelligence required to achieve competitive advantage.
The role of trade fairs today is also to valorise such talents, supporting them in their digital education and development. Digitalisation is nowadays an essential tool, which must integrate with the exhibition itself.
The report concluded with a connection to the Tempio di Adriano, the venue for today’s AEFI event, where three young talents – Giovanna Musumeci, master gelato maker, Jacopo De Carli, shoemaker 2.0, specialised in the restoration of sneakers and Davide Sirago, the developer of the Carepy app, which connects patients, physicians and pharmacists – talked about how trade fairs have been a launch pad for their businesses.
Loredana Sarti, General Secretary of AEFI, explained how fairs can help young people by creating the contacts they require to realise their dreams, with networking as their principal purpose.
Watch the report from minute 38:30 https://goo.gl/28W69G
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, Thailand and South Africa, 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.