The Milan Fuorisalone has just ended and what a great success it was! Perhaps also as a follow-up to the ‘pause’ of 2020, which calls for a reflection on the theme of trade fairs in general. Also in anticipation of Smart Building Expo and the AV Playground project, which will give us the opportunity to reunite the sector after two years of waiting.
For years, in fact, while continuing to visit and organise events, we’ve reflected on the very model of the fairs and also on the fact that they were a useful opportunity to meet up, not only for the presentation of new products, but also perhaps because the time had come to change the logic and methods of the fairs. The long pause of in person demonstrations, thanks to the pandemic, has in fact highlighted once more that remote work systems allow us to perform a large part of our assignments just as well, but it was precisely the fairs and events that gave us the opportunity to create new contacts to expand, develop, and maybe even reorientate our business. How many times did a meeting at a fair offer us the right idea, or did a visit to the stand bring us the contact of a customer who then allowed us to start a new trend?
Apparently, it was the “networking” – the mixture of new acquaintances, chatter, exchanging of points of view that created the first step of this work and perhaps even a commercial relationship – that constituted the main lever of the 55,000 visits to the Fuorisalone, an event that also saw the presence of some brands in our sector, from K-array to Philips, from Samsung to ConnAction, but also of the 40,000 of Cibus. This is just from the last two events (very different from each other) which in the last few weeks have dictated the return of in person events.
All in spite of the many and varied controversies about the Green Pass: wanting to overlook the ethics of restriction, there was the fear that this tool could represent a disincentive to participate. Instead, apparently, the public used it precisely as a guarantee of safety, to resume an important activity that had to be given up for a long time. In short, here is a sign of confidence also for our proposals: Smart Building Expo, with its thematic area AV Playground dedicated to System Integration, in coexistence with Security and MADE Expo, which will take place from 22 to 24 November in Milan Rho. It will be the first trade fair in the sector in two years and, if the proportion has been worth the success of the last two events, we can only hope this will be the same.
www.smartbuildingexpo.it
www.smartbuildingexpo.it/avplayground