STATEMENT FROM MAURIZIO DANESE CHAIRMAN OF THE AEFI, THE ITALIAN EXHIBITION AND TRADE FAIR ASSOCIATION

“The exhibitions need to begin again. In the Prime Minister’s decree of 31 July, we expect the definite date for reopening to be 1 September”

“We fully appreciate the commitment of minister Di Maio for the restarting of the Italian trade fair system in September. Now these words are followed by concrete facts from the Government: a definite date for the reopening of the exhibition centres and a plan to aid in the recovery of the losses suffered due to the cancellation of the exhibitions due to Covid-19”. Said Maurizio Danese, chairman of AEFI, the Italian Exhibition and Trade Fair Association that brings together the 40 principal national organisers of a sector that generates a turnover of 60 billion € every year and gives rise to almost 50% of made in Italy exports. “We hope that the Prime Minister’s decree of 31 July will finally give us some certainty about the recovery as Minister Di Maio has proposed -continues Danese-. For our part, we are immediately ready to get back to our role as a strategic tool at the service of the country’s industrial policy, trusting in an urgent implementation of a support fund for our sector which in 2020 will be brought to its knees by a drop in turnover of more than 70 percent”.

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 currently has 40 Associates, 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. AEFI is 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 internationalisation front, AEFI supports members thanks to agreements with strategic markets. To date, partnerships have been agreed with Iran, Taiwan, Lebanon, India, Thailand, South Africa and Poland, 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.