UFI Comment
Kai Hattendorf
UFI Managing Director
Stronger together
here is a lot of competition in
the market for attention. To
stand out, and to be heard,
the story that you want to
share has to be relevant, clear, timely - and
trustworthy.
In the past three years, we have grown
immensely as an industry in our ability to
express who we are, what we stand for, and
the value we bring to local communities
and international economies alike. The
key driver of this development is our
annual Global Exhibitions Day on the first
Wednesday in June.
Since we launched this initiative in 2016,
countless organisers, venues and service
providers have been active. 41 industry
associations from all around the world have
joined the project and are working together
on initiatives and awareness campaigns –
from Australasia to Western America.
Last year, GED activated industry
professionals in 85 countries and regions all
around the world to stand up to stand out.
Right now, around the world, many leaders
of our industry are overseeing preparations
for this year’s GED, too.
I want to personally thank everyone who
was involved in shaping this year’s messages
for Global Exhibitions Day. Let’s make sure
that the messages we take to shareholders
and stakeholders, to politicians and to young
professionals, will find their ears, and catch
their attention.
Besides coordinating the GED work, at UFI
we have been working on various projects
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Issue 3 2019
that support GED as well as our whole
industry. Today, I want to highlight two
specific initiatives that will ensure we have
trustworthy data and take timely action for
this year’s big day.
We often say that our exhibitions industry
is an ‘invisible’ giant, and that the value we
create is hardly seen beyond some hotel
statistics. So we have worked with Oxford
Economics to produce the ‘Global Economic
Impact of Exhibitions’ report. With it, for the
first time, we have been able to calculate the
total global economic impact of exhibitions.
With a total output of €275 (US$325) billion
in business sales annually, the exhibition
sector is on a par with sectors such as
machine tools, or medical and surgical
equipment. This ranks our sector as the 56th
largest economy in the world, larger than
those of countries such as Hungary, Kuwait,
Sri Lanka, and Ecuador.
Based on UFI exhibition metrics, the
model developed by Oxford Economics
provides results for the world and also
regional data for Africa, the Asia-Pacific,
Central and South America, Europe, the
Middle East and North America.
As with every piece of global UFI research,
this one is based on collaboration and
teamwork, and we have been working with
SISO in the US and the AEO in the UK on
this project. We can take it even further, as
this study on economic impact allows for
country and market profiles to be added
using the same metrics. We have secured an
arrangement with Oxford Economics that
allows industry associations who are UFI
members to have specific profiles for their
home markets added to the report.
The second initiative is around
sustainability – an area where UFI has been
active for more than a decade already,
establishing trust with stakeholders and
supporting the dialogue in our industry. The
Global Visitor Insights study that we released
with Explori last November shows that a
surprisingly high number of visitors are
actually avoiding attending events where
they see that topic neglected.
So, at a time when sustainability is on
top of many decision-makers’ minds, UFI is
launching a campaign for the industry to
support the Sustainable Development Goals
of the United Nations. We are collecting and
sharing best practices from the industry
leaders on their respective projects to
implement the UN goals.
You will find more information about
Global Exhibitions Day and the Economic
Impact Study in this edition of Exhibition
World.
All these elements are possible because
of the active support from the global UFI
community. This comes in many shapes
and forms – as insight, dialogue, project
support, working group activities, and
financial contributions, to list just a few.
As we proceed to tell the story of our great
industry, all of you are making it relevant,
clear, timely - and trustworthy.
Thank you – and happy Global Exhibitions
Day 2019!
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk