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Spotlight
UFI President Corrado Peraboni shares insights on today’s celebration of the €98B exhibition industry.
How much support has there been for (the June 6) Global Exhibitions Day over the last 12 months?
As of today, Global Exhibitions Day (GED) is actively supported by 41 associations. Coordinated by UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, GED is celebrated and promoted around the world.
With 260 million visitors and 4.4 million exhibitors generating €98 billion in revenue every year, the exhibition industry has a huge impact on jobs, business, innovation, and local investment. GED aims to raise awareness of this on a global scale, demonstrating how the exhibition industry benefits the economy, as well as the variety of career opportunities it has to offer.
UFI estimates that half of exhibition spending benefits host territories directly, and the other half benefits the exhibition industry, creating or maintaining hundreds of thousands of jobs. As with previous GED events, industry professionals and students around the world have been very active in the GED online campaign and many organisations are also preparing local events for GED18.
Delegates have also demonstrated their support for GED throughout all kinds of events, including the IEIA Open Seminar in Hyderabad (India), the UFI Asia-Pacific Conference in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Ungerboeck’s annual event in Disneyland Paris, and the UFI European Conference in Verona (Italy).
This year, the focus is on quality rather than quantity — with a spotlight on projects raising awareness of the industry outside the exhibition world. All GED participants can register their initiatives online — through our GED reporting tool — to compete in five different categories (Most Creative Activity, Highest Profile Online Activity, Biggest Scale Physical Activity, Industry Impact Award, and Talent Promotion Award). Winners will be announced at the end of June.
How much support is expected for 2018/19?
When we look at statistics from GED17, we can tell that 80 countries are sure to support GED18. We value all support and encourage everyone to get involved in GED. However, as mentioned, this year the focus is on the quality of the projects rather than the quantity.
What is the scale of support on a global and local level for GED?
There are many different kinds of planned initiatives. For example in Australia, EEAA will hold the Global Exhibitions Day and Leaders Forum Dinner. It also produced a video GED support statement by inviting Australia’s minister for trade, tourism and investment and letter packs have been mailed to key Australian government, industry, and business leaders.
In Russia, the Russian Exhibition Industry Conference will be held today by RUEF, and it also organized an exhibition presentation event.
In India, IEIA has organised a national GED India Award and a series of regional GED18 celebrations.
In Italy, the AEFI has produced two series of GED18 video.
AUMA has aligned its annual MesseTreff event with GED in Germany, while in France, the Global Exhibitions Run will be organized by UNIMEV.
The U.S. will organize its industrial celebration on Capitol Hill.
All projects can be found at http://www.ufi.org/industry-resources/global-exhibitions-day/search/
How many languages have GED materials been translated into?
GED18 materials provided by UFI’s GED task force have been translated into multiple languages to ease global communication and advocacy within the exhibition industry. What’s more, anybody who wishes to participate in GED can create their own materials (video, images, texts, messages) by adding the GED logo and sharing them on social media. This is also one of the reasons why GED has become so popular. People like to get involved, create, and share their knowledge and experience. The GED celebration involves everyone in the exhibition community who wants to help promote our industry.