Archives

New Beginnings At Saragossa

ZOWOW Spain
Feria De Zaragoza
Saragossa, Spain
June 2 – 5, 2009

ZOW in Saragossa will benefit from the advantages of a modern showground ready for further expansion. With the introduction of new product groups, the show will offer a wide-ranging assortment which will be even more attractive than in the years before.

ZOW in Saragossa will be organised by the same Survey team that has been responsible for the last seven shows in Spain. The Spanish staff will be reinforced by Miguel Angel Bonilla as the new Survey General Manager for the Iberian Peninsula as well as the new director of ZOW in Saragossa. He has supported the ZOW trade fair concept from the very start and has taken part in ZOW trade fairs in Spain, Italy and Germany as an exhibitor in the past. Miguel Angel Bonilla is confident that ZOW in Saragossa will continue its success story: “ZOW in Saragossa will offer more product diversity than ever before. Together with the perfect location, the show will be a new highlight for the supplier industry in Spain.”

ZOW moved to Saragossa – and at the same time the Survey office moved from Blanes to Masnou. Survey Spain is still a subsidiary company of the Germany based Survey Marketing + Consulting GmbH & Co in Bad Salzuflen with its CEO and ZOW founder Peter H Meyer.

Sneak Peek

AHEC Convention
Shenyang
Liaoning, China
June 10 – 12, 2009

The 14th Southeast Asia & Greater China American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) Convention will be held from June 10 to 12, 2009 in Liaoning, China.
The theme of the convention has been decided upon and it is, “The Sustainability and Diversity of US Hardwoods - Manufacture and Design Solutions”.

Design Impulse

Expo Mueble
Expo Guadalajara
Jalisco, Mexico
July 8 – 21, 2009

To bridge the distance between designers and manufacturers, there will be a Design Hall at each level. It is set up to be a conducive environment for designers and industrialists to work and negotiate, studying the feasibility of their designs.

Furthering this design focus, the Furnishings Design National Contest (Dimueble) will be held under the auspices of Expo Mueble. It is a competition aimed squarely at industry design students from the public or private universities of Mexico.

This competition that brings together young design talents is done so in two phases: The first phase, takes place in the winter edition of Expo Mueble which involves the presentation and the first furniture proposal selections along with concrete images showing their characteristics, and the second takes place in the summer, with the presentation of physical furniture prototypes on display for the general public to see.

New for the winter edition of Expo Mueble – held in February 2009, a column-free space totaling 14,000 sq m will be used. This new complex is being constructed now on the Guadalajara campus. This new space promises a better view and layout space to accommodate more flexible booths.

Keeping with the global trend to respect the environment, the summer edition of Expo Mueble will be pushing forth several initiatives to promote a green culture amongst its exhibitors, buyers and visitors. The organisers will be promoting the use of recycled paper, less paper consumption and more rational usage of air conditioning and electricity.

Buyer Friendly Fair For All Asia

China Internatational Furniture Fair (CIFF)
Pazhou China Import & Export Fair Complex
Guangzhou, China
September 6 – 9, 2009

Modern and classical furniture will be highlighted together with Homedecor + Hometextile China (Guangzhou) 2009. Buyers will be given a one-stop access to furniture and interior decorative products. Outdoor furniture will also be showcased this time.

This year, an additional service will be extended to buyers. A Frequent Buyer launched since March offers membership registration, online booking, visa and air ticket booking services, hotel and airport transportation, as well as on-spot guides. Buyers who have attended or registered for at least two consecutive fairs are eligible for this service simply by signing up for the service via the show’s website. At the showgrounds, these members are also entitled to free refreshments and Internet services.

This programme, says Senior Manager Yu Yi, is part of the holistic service offered by the organisers. “We are visitor and trade friendly unlike design-oriented shows in Milan. As an export-oriented fair in its 23rd edition, we have the infrastructure and hospitality service which put us in a very advantageous position,” Yu said referring to CIFF’s long-term plan to position itself as the trade platform for the whole of Asia. The captain of CIFF said he has observed that many smaller shows in the Guangdong province and Southeast Asia have been struggling, judging by their exhibitor and visitor numbers.

“We will not just be a Guangzhou or Chinese show but an Asian one. CIFF can be a one-stop sourcing fair for the entire region, representing in particular the many distinct styles of Southeast Asia,” Yu said.

He added that the September showing will remain capped at 130,000 sq m because the organisers do not want to “expand blindly”. “By June, buyers would have received feedback of the goods they purchased so when they come in September, they would already have known exactly what they want to buy for the rest of the year. They wouldn’t need so many new designs to choose from.”

Covering All Bases

iSaloni
Milan Showgrounds
Milan, Italy
April 22 – 27, 2009

The iSaloni will make their annual return to Rho from April 22 – 27, 2009, breathing fresh life into the Milan Fairgrounds in Rho and serving up an infinite variety of goods, including furnishing, furnishing accessories, lighting products and creations by young designers.

Bolstered by the success of the previous edition, which achieved record figures for the entire history of the event (first held in 1961) − there were 348,452 sector operators, of whom 210,000 came from 160 countries, 30,373 visitors who attended on the Sunday when the exhibition was open to the public, 4,968 journalists from 69 countries and 2,659 exhibitors − the iSaloni is again heading for the starting blocks, gearing up suitably amidst the unfavourable global economic conditions.

The 200,000+ sq m of exhibition space at Rho will play host to the 48th edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the 25th edition of Euroluce, the 23rd of the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and the 12th of SaloneSatellite. There will be a wide and varied range of proposals from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile as well as the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, an integral part of the exhibition format, which will showcase almost all of domestic furnishing solutions both in terms of typology – from stand-alone pieces to coordinates – and in terms of style – from classical to design to modern – not to mention the trendsetters of tomorrow.

There will also be a huge range of quality goods on display at Euroluce, the International Lighting Exhibition, originally conceived to respond to the demand for decorative lighting, which has steadily grown to encompass other sectors such as technical illumination, street lighting, light sources and their control systems, and is now one of the benchmarks for the international Lighting sector. In synergy with this event, a programme of parallel initiatives in partnership with the lighting designer associations PLDA and APIL, and the International Convention of University Courses in Design, Designing Designers, will this year take light as its theme.

Middle East Boom

Infdex
Doha Exhibition Centre
Qatar, UAE
October 21 – 24, 2009

Into its eighth year, the International Furniture and Design Exhibition (Infdex) will span 10,000 sq m of show space, providing visitors and exhibitors interested in the Middle Eastern markets a valuable springboard to do so.
With wealth derived from substantial oil and natural gas reserves and no personal taxation, the Arabian Gulf state of Qatar enjoys the highest per capita GDP (US$75,000) in the Arab world, making it an important market for furniture players all over the globe.

A real estate and construction boom in the Middle East translates into 1,000 office and residential blocks, new hotels, schools and a host of other construction projects under development. To allow visitors and exhibitors to tap into this wealth of opportunity, the Infdex team has combed the world to entice exciting companies to show at Infdex 2009. At press time, an estimated 5,000 traders and up to 6,000 public visitors from 26 countries are expected to come from the US, South America, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Expansion Into Guangzhou

JSWB Home Furnishings Centre (HFC) Guangzhou
Poly World Trade Centre
Guangdong, China
September 2009

The Zou Wenlong-led Jisheng Wellborn (JSWB) Furniture Group has unveiled plans to host a permanent showroom as well as semi-annual trade fair in Guangzhou. Utilising properties leased from the Poly World Trade Centre (PWTC), the JSWB Home Furnishings Centre (HFC) Guangzhou will offer a permanent retail complex within a 120,000 sq m building (Hall A). With six-storeys and a basement, one entire floor will be allocated to international brands.
Temporary exhibitors will be housed twice a year in an adjacent building (Hall B) spanning 80,000 sq m over three storeys, including a basement level of F&B outlets.

Both buildings are located just beside Phase III of the Pazhou Exhibition Hall, where the China International Furniture Fair (CIFF) will be held. There will be direct access to/from the Subway station and the Shangri-la Hotel. Halls A and B are connected by an overhead bridge link; on land over the road; as well as through the subway underpass.

In a press briefing held on March 17, 2009 at the Shangri-La Guangzhou, Zou announced that the retail building (Hall A) will be ready in September 2009. It will be used temporarily for the inaugural JSWB HFC Guangzhou sourcing fair. He did not specify an exact opening date.

Nonetheless by March 2010, both buildings will be operational and Hall A will revert back to the original blueprint as a B2C retail centre. Hall B will open every March and September as a trade fair. The latter is intended to run concurrently with the CIFF. JSWB HFC Guangzhou will then offer a total show space of 200,000 sq m during the two said months by this time. Hall B will be leased out to other events by PWTC in all other months except these two.

Zou also explained why he chose for the B2B and B2C elements to run parallel. He said firstly, that in B2B sense, trade exhibitions remain as the most effective way for buyers to source for products. Besides months March and September, there are buyers and crowds all year round at the Pazhou and PWTC complexes which host other trade exhibitions. These include the Canton Fair in April and October annually. According to Zou, a building materials show in July as well as a hotel furniture exhibition in June and October will draw many potential buyers to the JSWB HFC Guangzhou.

“I also expect retail sales to be optimistic. Consumers are able to see first hand the products that their retailers buy. This will be a huge draw for end-users, especially when can enjoy the same price as quoted to trade buyers. I hope that their store displays will look more like an exhibition booth than a showroom, so that consumers will find the layout refreshing,” Zou added.

The JSWB HFC Guangzhou will be positioned as a platform for local players to internationalise as well as expand domestic market shares. "With a strong focus on well established Chinese brands that are already having their showrooms with JSWB at other locations, combined with a number of international brands that are currently not exhibiting at the Guangzhou Fair, the JSWB HFC Guangzhou is expected to strengthen the position of Guangzhou as the main venue for international furniture fairs in southern China," the company said in a statement.

On JSWB at other locations, the Global Home Furnishings Centre (GHFC) Shanghai, which will not offer a trade exhibition event this year, will reopen with a completed Phase II in September 2010. This is in addition to the two buildings of JSWB HFC Guangzhou which will also be running at the same time.

Hakon Rydland, the Executive Vice President of JSWB, will be in charge of both JSWB fairs in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Staying In Vogue

Brussels Belgium
September 8 – 11, 2009
MoOD Brussels
Brussels Expo

Decosit Brussels has been renamed and rebranded as MoOD Brussels since October 2008 (read more in our November 2008 issue). Decosit, DecoContract and Decotec will now be branded under this name. In addition, highest quality sheers, curtains and wall coverings will be given more focus.

Patrick Geysels, General Manager Textirama, said, “MoOD rises from the foundations of Decosit Brussels but will be so much more: we add window and wall coverings to upholstery and stress the fact that only original producers can exhibit at MoOD. In the meantime contract products will play a key role at MoOD in September.”

MoOD on the other hand appeals to a young, creative, new audience and better supports the current range. Moreover, MoOD is no longer limited to upholstery. Textirama says that the “sit” component in “Decosit” leads many to assume that the show is linked only to seating and upholstery.