Reposted from The Paper. Reporter: Yu Kai.
Almost all the leaders and elites of the global exhibition industry have come to Shanghai, Sergey Alexeev, then president of UFI, told The Paper.
The 83rd UFI Global Congress will be held in Shanghai for the first time from November 9 to 12. At the press conference for this congress on November 8, Alexeev said he had visited Shanghai 20 years ago, and today's Shanghai had clearly become an international exhibition capital. One figure illustrates this well: past UFI congresses usually had around 420 to 460 member participants, while the number of members attending the 83rd congress in Shanghai reached a record 590, 30 percent more than in previous years.
At the press conference, Chen Xianjin, president of the Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Industries Association, said that UFI had decided to establish a permanent office in Shanghai, China. During this congress, UFI will formally sign an agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Government on setting up the permanent office in Shanghai, which will play an important role in promoting the development of Shanghai's exhibition industry.
According to Chen Xianjin, UFI is the world's most important international exhibition industry organization. It has been established for more than 90 years, has members from 84 countries and regions, and its certification of exhibitions constitutes an international standard for the exhibition industry.
In January 2014, the Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Industries Association submitted a request to the Shanghai Municipal Government, hoping to bid for the 83rd UFI Global Congress to be held in 2016. With the support of Shanghai municipal leaders, the association submitted its hosting application to UFI in March 2014. Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong and others signed written letters of support. After competition, Shanghai stood out among four competing locations in the Asia-Africa region and successfully won the right to host the 83rd congress.
Shanghai is one of the regions in China where the exhibition industry started relatively early, developed quickly, reached a high level of internationalization and gained strong influence. Since the early 1980s, after decades of effort, Shanghai has built a sound foundation for exhibition industry development and now faces new development opportunities, Chen Xianjin told The Paper. Shanghai currently has two mega exhibition venues, the Shanghai New International Expo Center and the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Hongqiao. The city's available exhibition area exceeds one million square meters, making it the city with the largest available exhibition area in the world and providing sufficient conditions for holding large and mega exhibitions.
The theme of this UFI congress is The Chain Reaction: Transforming the Exhibition Industry. It will directly address many changing realities in the industry, such as challenges brought by digitalization, political instability and global economic shifts. Topics include venue development and management, human resources and big data. The annual industry analysis report will be released and the 2016 UFI awards will be presented at the congress.