Catalunya will have 422 tradeshows in 2005 according to forecasts of the XI FEFIC Congress

During the 2nd and 3rd of December in Tremp (Lleida), the XI Congreso de Ferias de Catalunya, took place with the attendance of 125 persons.

The Congress was officially opened by the President of the Diputacion of Lerida, Isidro Gavin. The annual conferencie was run by Pierre Boy de la Tour, Director of Marketing, Communication and Quality of Paris Expo. One of the classics of the congress was the simultaneous thematic debates which won in efficiency being facilitated by leading professionals in the themes, among them were : “How to define and achieve the public objectives of the trade fairs”; “Multi-sectorial trade fairs, present and future”; “Human resources in trade fairs, implication of personals and the instituitions”; “Market studies applied to trade fairs, the DAFO”, and finally, “AIMFE-FEFIC”.

On the 3rd December, the congress continued in Centro de Información Integrada del Pirineo (CITA) in Talarn, where the Consejo Rector de la Federación de Ferias de Catalunya was formed, headed by the Director of Trade, Tourism and Consumption of the Generalitat, Josep Huguet. The Consejo is made up by the General Director of Trade of the Generalitat, Raimon Serret, the four provincial town councils of Catalunya, four members of the Consejo de Cámaras de Comercio, and 17 presidents of Catalan trade fairs entities. The Consejo Rector will outline the working guidelines of the FEFIC and will have more implications in the future in the trade fairs sector to all the instituitions that have in any way, participate in trade fairs in Catalunya. The initiative of the Premios a la Innovación ferial was presented and the Congress was closed by Josep Huguet.

Among the figures that were made public in the congress by the General Management of Trade was the forecasts of trade fairs in Catalunya for 2005, which will be a total of 422, against the 401 that were finally held in 2004, that had 51,879 exhibitors; 11,841,480 visitors and 1,680,592 square metres of floor space-

Catalunya continues to be in 2004, the autonomous community with the largest number of trade fairs (401), followed by 127 in Madrid, 101 in Galicia, 151 in Valencia, 145 in the Baleares Islands and 106 in Andalusia.