To celebrate the 40th Aefi – Association of Italian Exhibitions and Fairs, the conference “Internationalization and tourism: 2 exhibition capitals at the service of Made in Italy” was held on June 7 in Rome at the Chamber of Commerce.
The event, which took place in conjunction with the World Fairs Day – GED2023, also saw the presentation of the studies carried out by Prometeia and Roland Berger for Aefi.
After the greetings of the president of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, Lorenzo Tagliavanti, there was the speech by Maurizio Danese, president of Aefi dedicated to “A call for the future of trade fairs”.
40th Aefi: more internationalization to grow
The Italian exhibition sector involves 190 companies and 3,700 employees, a sector worth 1.4 billion euros a year. In other words, as recalled by Danese, it is “an extraordinary vector of growth for Made in Italy companies, however still not very present abroad, where Italian players develop on average less than 10% of their total revenues; for this reason the challenge, already in the medium term, will consist in the creation of a tool capable of supporting the growth of the leading events outside the national borders”.
A reflection comes from the study “Strategy for international strengthening of the Italian trade fair system”, carried out by the Roland Berger company for Aefi. The report gives the recipe for promoting the leap in international quality that passes from the “call to action”, launched on the occasion of the conference.
40th Aefi: the role of the “Club deal”
The next steps will involve joining the trade fair operators and the main exhibitions to a platform – the “Club deal” -, the elaboration of a shared program with the definition of strategic intersections and the matching of exhibitions/target countries. And again: the quantification of economic impacts and investments, also with a view to acquisitions, the involvement of institutions (competent ministries, ICE, Simest…).
The “Club deal”, according to the document drawn up by Aefi and Roland Berger, will be a platform open to all the leading international events of the Italian product. Two objectives: to further support the growth of exports; consolidate a presence in the fourth world trade fair industry also thanks to funding to support the global development of the Italian brand.
All with a single management, coordinated and shared by the players who will be free to participate or not in initiatives – even common and divided by supply chain – according to their portfolio choices.
An industrial policy lever
40th Aefi www.aefi.it: “The goal is to accompany our businesses around the world under a single flag and fill the international gap of our system to lead it to the values of France and Germany, whose demonstrations abroad have an almost 30% of the total turnover”, concluded Danese. According to Francesco Calvi Parisetti, Roland Berger Italia partner, the trade fair is a system that guarantees companies in our country a low-cost tool, but capable of providing a high exposure abroad thanks to the leading international events organized in Italy.
