Giovanni Laezza new AEFI President
The General Meeting of the AEFI-Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, held today at BolognaFiere, saw the election of the Association’s new President, Giovanni Laezza, who will remain in post for the next four years.
Antonio Bruzzone (BolognaFiere General Manager), Lorenzo Cagnoni (IEG President), Fabrizio Curci (Fiera Milano CEO) and Maurizio Danese (President of Veronafiere) were appointed Vice Presidents of the Association. The new Board of Directors also comprises six members, Alessandro Ambrosi (President of Nuova Fiera del Levante), Giovanni Ciceri (Lariofiere President), Pietro Piccinetti (Sole Director of Fiera Roma), Renzo Piraccini (President of Cesena Fiera), Renato Pujatti (President of Pordenone Fiere) and Luciano Snidar (President of Udine e Gorizia Fiere).
The Association represents 35 trade fair districts, which each year organise around 1000 exhibitions over a total exhibition space of 4.2 million square metres, drawing in million operators from all over the world and attracting 200 thousand participating businesses.
Giovanni Laezza, General Manager of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi, succeeds Ettore Riello who led the Association for eight years, consolidating relations with various institutions to enhance and position the Italian exhibition sector as a tool to support the country’s industrial policy, and strengthening initiatives to support members and operators in their growth process at national and international level.
In summing up his two terms, Ettore Riello thanked the Board of Directors, the Commissions and the General Secretary Loredana Sarti for their ongoing support in sharing decisions, interventions and guidelines, recalling that the last eight years have represented, for the world economy and in particular for Italy, the greatest financial crisis since 1929. “A crisis that has also affected our industry, with some aspects that are still dragging on, but from which the majority of our structures have come out renewed and strengthened. Without question, this has been thanks to the energy and professionalism present in every district but, I must say, it is also thanks to the continuous and widespread work that the Association has carried over these years“, commented Ettore Riello.
“I thank all the members for their trust. I am proud to be able to guide an Association that has been able to face difficult years head on, building relationships and always working in the interest of every single member. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue the work done and the projects launched by the President and by the outgoing Board of Directors to support the Italian exhibition sector in its role in developing our country“, declared Giovanni Laezza, new AEFI President.
AEFI-Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, a private non-profit Association, was established in 1983 with the goal of generating synergies among 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, with CENTREX, the International Exhibition Statistics Union and with EUPIC-EU Project Innovation Center. 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.