Global Exhibitions Day 2021 was held on 3 June, involving over 110 countries with on and offline events, for an overall audience of over 700 million contacts. Among the events there is also the webinar organized by Aefi dedicated to the “Tips for restarting” with the main partners in the sector.
“The time has come to show the world that Italian fairs are united and are heading in the same direction. Therefore, I welcome the invitation of the president of Fiera Milano, Carlo Bonomi, to create a critical mass among our leading events. We must be able to lead the Made in Italy supply chains that we preside towards a quick and determined recovery; we must join forces – on a corporate and strategic level – also to defend our assets from foreign competitors. A change of pace that I find of essential importance ».
These words were spoken by Maurizio Danese, president of Aefi https://www.aefi.it/it/, at the opening of the webinar dedicated to Global Exhibitions Day 2021, who went on to recall that: “In pre-Covid only 9.6% of the companies in the system were at risk of default; now, in the post-Covid, the score has risen to almost 70%. Our goal is to disprove this fact, because if this were the case it would not only be a defeat of the Italian fairs but of the national champions of Made in Italy. Those 200,000 exhibitors who find it essential to participate in our events and who generate business for 60 billion euros a year at the fair “.
For his part, the president of CFI – Trade Fairs and Industry Committee, Massimo Goldoni, declared: «Never before have we had the demonstration of how it is necessary to act as a system. The fairs with their events are exactly the hardware and software of what the country needs for the restart of our industrial and manufacturing chains and it will be fundamental – added the president of the Confindustria association – to work on the extraordinary promotion of trade fair calendars for guarantee the best outlet for our supply chains, avoiding overlapping ».
Global Exhibitions Day 2021, the CEO of Ufi https://www.ufi.org/, Kai Hattendorf: «Fairs are the preferred path for recovery. The past 15 months have taught us that the key point for the development of business and relationships is and remains the face to face meeting, the physical presence at fairs and events. We know – added the CEO of the world association of reference for the sector – that what we do is important, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, which represent about 80% -85% of our exhibitors, and for which the exhibition districts represent the main sales and marketing channel ».