An even bigger ZOW in the heart of a district that’s increasingly leading the market
This October (Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th) there will be the eighth ZOW exhibition at Pordenone: this year the furniture production trend in the “Triveneto” (Veneto, Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige regions) for the first quarter was for the most part stable when compared with 2007 figures. For the wood and furnishings industry, 2008 began with a trend that suggests confirmation, if it were needed, of the area’s leading position in Italian furniture production: figures produced by Centro Studi COSMIT and Federlegno-Arredo (the Italian federation of furniture makers), product exports in Italy’s northeast in 2007 exceeded 4,400 million euro against imports of 2,000 million euro, mainly for the acquisition of wood and semi-finished wood products. In the first three months of 2008 exports from the area exceeded one billion euro against imports which in percentage terms are mainly stable, reaching 447 million euro. These are values that confirm a general stability in this market, bucking the not terribly encouraging trends seen both in Italy and in the traditional market outlets for finished products.
And so ZOW Pordenone comes at just the right moment to give new stimulus to this sector: this year again the fair will feature over seven hundred companies participating from over thirty different countries. The biggest producers have confirmed their attendance, meaning the international industry drivers in this sector will be present once again at Pordenone.
The level of quantity and quality of what’s on show will be even higher than in past years, and this year ZOW will again be drawing on supplementary exhibition space – a further 3,000 square metres of it – to better meet the increased demand from highly-qualified and superior exhibitors for exhibition space over the 2007 show. The layout of the exhibition will, however, still follow the same successful formula as before: there will still be the central entrance, with the trade fair developing into the two sides of the Fair Quarter, two buffet restaurants in the outlying exhibition halls, and the classic restaurant in the central hall.
This year, the organisers’ central objective is, as ever, to consolidate the international positioning of ZOW through constantly improving the services offered to the participating companies: the relationship with the city of Pordenone is better than ever before, a far cry from the early years with their teething problems. Now we can promote ideas and initiatives to create an “added value”, as it were, with après-fair activities: already several years ago most of the exhibiting companies were sending their entire staff of export managers to Pordenone as a matter of course. This is further proof of the value of the ZOW formula, still unique worldwide and still the only fair that makes demand meet supply and lets companies concentrate all their attention on what they do best: direct business.
Not to mention the contacts they’ve built up through those après-fair meetings that are so often the most interesting part of the fair scene, with company visits followed by classic business dinners in traditional restaurants of the area. |
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