6 JUNE 2018: THIRD “GLOBAL EXHIBITIONS DAY” AEFI and “THE POWER OF ITALIAN EXHIBITIONS”
Following the success of its first two editions, which involved thousands of professionals from more than 75 countries, the spotlight today is on the trade fair sector with Global Exhibitions Day – founded in 2016 by UFI-The Global Association for the Exhibition Industry – and now an annual appointment for the industry worldwide.
Year after year, Global Exhibitions Day is seeing growth in its role as a driver in promoting the trade fair sector: an occasion for highlighting the positive impact of Trade Fairs on employment, businesses, innovation and local investment.
To show the world the potential of our sector and showcase Italian trade fairs as a tool for growing the economy and employment and highlighting their role as a place for meeting and exchanging ideas, AEFI – Italian Exhibition and Trade Fair Association has drawn up a particularly extensive programme of activities, today seeing its culmination in the great “The Power of Italian Exhibitions” event in the splendid setting of the Sala del Tempio di Adriano, Chamber of Commerce in Rome.
“Starting with the general concept – The Power of Exhibitions – and acting on the guidelines defined by UFI through a working group, in which AEFI plays an active part, and this year summarised in the keywords advocacy and talent, we opted for a format which, on the one hand, would allow for discussion between the various stakeholders and, on the other, highlight the role played by Italian exhibitions as showcases for the world-renowned Made in Italy brand, and as launching hubs for new talents,” comments Ettore Riello, President of AEFI.
It must never be forgotten that the sector at a global level is a genuine driver for development, also corroborated by the figures: 98 billion euros are spent by exhibitors and visitors, 680,000 people employed, rising to 1.8 million considering the direct impact on the businesses involved such as transport, accommodation and food service.
And for our country, which in 2018 can boast 1,000 exhibitions, 209 of which are international events, the sector has a significant weight.
The goal of the AEFI programme is to affirm Italian trade fairs as launching hubs for creativity and talent and meeting places for promoting these world-renowned national characteristics of our country.
Today’s event sums up a long journey developed with a focus on five keywords: Creativity, Talent, Young People, Design and Future.
To celebrate trade fairs as new locations of belonging and pride for emerging talents, showcase the trade fair sector as the route to capitalise on new professions and to raise awareness of such matters among the Italian Authorities, AEFI has launched a series of activities to promote Global Exhibitions Day. Among these is the production and distribution, also through social media, of some videos that shine a light on both the “Talents in exhibition”, that is, testimonials whose creative and/or entrepreneurial talent has benefited from and has been launched from attendance at Italian trade fair events, and the “Exhibitions of talent”, in which Trade Fairs tell their own story, explaining their own particular creative, innovative and talent characteristics.
Today’s celebratory “The power of Italian Trade Fairs” event involves various opportunities for going into further depth: after the contribution from the Institutions, whose presence is a sign of particular attention to the sector, the session will proceed with “Italian trade fairs as launching hubs for creativity and talent”, by professor Giulio Sapelli, who will start from an overview of the current macroeconomic scenario to illustrate the importance of the role of trade fairs in a constantly evolving geopolitical context. This will be followed by the “Trade Fairs: the place to meet Italian creativity” round table, which will see discussion from the representatives of Italian Trade Fairs.
The afternoon will instead be dedicated to “Creativity and talent”: a dialogue with foreign operators – from Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, India, Russia, the UK and Vietnam thanks to the support of the Italian Trade Agency – which will continue to a debate among certain testimonials on the importance of trade fairs as opportunities to showcase Italian creativity.
The day will conclude with the “Youth, projects and future” round table discussion between important representatives from the world of higher education.
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.