The Importance of Certification for Trade Fairs

The important trade fair quality certification project promoted by AEFI, the Italian Exhibition and Trade Fair Association, with CFI (Italian Industrial Trade Fairs Committee), CFT (Italian Service Trade Fairs Committee), the Italian Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces and Unioncamere (Italian Chambers of Commerce Union) continues.

From 2013 to 2015, 193 exhibitions registered in the Italian trade fair calendar have turned to ISFCERT for certification in accordance with the ISO25639:2008 standard (exhibition, show, fair and convention statistical data certification). From the initial 56 fairs of 2013, a considerable increase has been recorded, with another 62 exhibitions certified in 2014 and 75 – 4 of which at a national level – in 2015

This expansion is undoubtedly an important signal both in terms of transparency with stakeholders and greater competitiveness on foreign markets, where the process of certifying trade fairs is very widespread.

Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto host the highest number of certified exhibitions, but the choice to undertake the certification process has led to positive results throughout Italy, also granting priority access to a series of incentives provided by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, the ITA (Italian Trade Agency), the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, the Italian Chambers of Commerce and many local regional bodies.

AEFI – the Italian Exhibition and Trade Fair Association – was set up in 1983 with a view to generating synergies between the most significant Italian exhibition districts. Specifically, 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: the Exhibition Hub Technical Committee, the Administrative-Legal Committee, the Trade Fairs Network Committee, the IT and Technical Innovation Committee, and the new Initiatives and Programmes Committee.
On an international scale, AEFI represents Italian trade fairs in UFI – Union of International Fairs. Chaired by Ettore Riello, AEFI includes 34 member exhibition districts, which organise over 1,000 events a year over an overall exhibition area of 4.2 million square metres. Most international trade fairs, and 85% of all trade fairs, which take place each year in Italy, are held in AEFI-member exhibition districts.