'More synergies between trade fairs to make events abroad and events widespread'
The President of Fondazione Fiera Milano, Giovanni Bozzetti, speaks: priority to strengthen the dialogue with the territory and the competitiveness of the national system
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'Increasing synergies between exhibition centres is a necessity that we can no longer postpone. We must be united in order to enhance the national trade fair system, which in fact means enhancing the Italian production sectors, and compare ourselves with international competitors". Giovanni Bozzetti has been president of Fondazione Fiera Milano - Fiera Milano's main shareholder - since 1 August last, and among the objectives of his mandate, he has put dialogue with the territory and all its stakeholders at the top of the list, as well as the unity of the trade fair sector.
For years we have been talking about making a system between trade fairs in Italy. Some progress has been made, but often the logic of parochialism still seems to prevail. Why?
Unfortunately, in Italy a wrong cultural approach still often prevails in all spheres, which follows corporatism logics. We must overturn this paradigm and replace it with the idea that united, each obviously with its own territorial and commercial prerogatives, we are more attractive to foreign economic operators and strengthen our ability to compete outside national borders. Unity does not cancel out specificities but, on the contrary, even enhances them. This is why we have already begun talks with some major national trade fairs to evaluate possible collaborations and we have participated in a round table in the Lombardy Region, promoted by the Councillor for Economic Development Guido Guidesi, to discuss with the entire Lombardy trade fair system.
In concrete terms, what kind of synergies and collaborations do you propose?
I believe it is important to work together in two directions: on the one hand, to create joint trade fair products, on production sectors of excellence of made in Italy, to be presented abroad. On the other hand, to create, in Italy, what I call 'widespread fairs'. For example: abroad there are already some international trade fair champions in the construction sector. We, in Italy, have three important events that are somehow related to this industrial chain: Cersaie in Bologna, Marmomac in Verona and Made in Milan. We could try to schedule these three events in the same period, so that Italy can be presented abroad as the showcase of the construction sector in that particular period, so that foreign buyers are not forced to choose between one or the other, but can visit all three. There are many other examples, in different sectors.
