THE 2020 NATIONAL TRADE FAIR CALENDAR: ITALIAN EVENTS DRIVING THE COUNTRY’S DEVELOPMENT

The Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces has updated the 2020 National Trade Fair Calendar, which contains the main details of the fairs with an international character and of exhibitions at a national level. To confirm the importance of certification, a specific section of the Calendar is set aside for international events that have already been certified by institutes and companies recognised by Accredia, including ISFCert.

The National Trade Fair Calendar – produced by the Productive Activities Committee of the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, which oversees and coordinates the gathering of information from the various Regions – is a useful tool that allows companies to plan their attendance and gives potential visitors a sector-by-sector overview of the national and international events that take place in our country.

From an analysis conducted by AEFI of the list of 2020 events – up to date as of December 2019 – next year will see 224 international trade fairs – of which 86 are already certified – and 234 national ones. These are supplemented by multiple regional events.

The 224 international trade fairs expected to take place during 2020 focus mainly in the textile-clothing-fashion (15%), sport-hobbies-entertainment-art (11%), food-drinks-hospitality (11%), jewellery-watches-accessories (7%), industry- technology-mechanics (6%) and agriculture-forestry-livestock (6%) sectors.
Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto are the regions where the greatest numbers of international exhibitions are located.

Italian International Exhibitions 2020 by Region

The AEFI, with its 36 member exhibition districts, in which 96% of international trade fairs – of which 47% organised directly – will take place in 2020, highlights the importance and strategic value of Trade Fairs for the Italian economy once more: a turnover of an estimated 60 billion Euros is accomplished during the trade fairs every year.
To continue to be competitive and play their supporting role for companies to grow and develop on international markets, trade fairs should continue to be supported by Institutions.

If you compare the trend of Italian international trade fairs scheduled to take place in 2020 with those that were held in 2018 – a comparable year owing to the cyclic nature of the majority of events – and analyse the sectors, you can see that there is a clear rise for Textile-Clothing-Fashion (52 in 2020 and 38 in 2018); Food-Drinks-Hospitality (36 in 2020 and 21 in 2018); Agriculture-Forestry-Livestock (21 in 2020 and 14 in 2018) and Beauty-Cosmetics (16 in 2020 and 6 in 2018). There is essentially no change for Sport-Hobbies-Entertainment-Art (39 in 2020 and 36 in 2018); Jewellery-Watches-Accessories (25 in 2020 and 21 in 2018); Furniture-Interior Design (12 in 2020 and 10 in 2018).

Italian International Exhibitions 2020 by main sectors

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 36 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.

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 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.