So we are talking about networking what role do UFI events play Kai An extremely important one UFI mem bership does not automatically bestow magi cal powers to its holders It gives everyone the opportunity to get actively involved to make contacts and to exchange ideas One great as pect of the exhibition industry is that on a global level we have little direct competition The Chinese operator of an exhibition centre does not compete with his or her French col league Participants at UFI events are therefore very open to sharing their expertise Paul Yes for years we have been working on our formats to allow more networking How ever there must always be a middle ground because members are different There are those who want to maintain everything the way it is at UFI events and others who want to change everything possible And we must not forget one thing Our meetings are con ducted in English For 90 percent of our members English is only the second lan guage Therefore not all well intentioned in teractive elements work as they do at an American association conference where everyone communicates in their native lan guage That is a bit of the price that we pay for being represented in nearly all exhibition relevant regions of the world Asia alone sup plies a third of our mem bers Soon the UFI Congress will take place in Milan What can we expect Paul We are returning to our roots Ninety years ago in 1925 the UFI was found ed in Milan But of course this fact has only a limited value for partici pants For this reason we will dedicate ourselves to future issues The opening lecture for example looks at the world in 2030 And our partner Fiera Milano will offer very a practical demonstration of how to hold a sustainable confer ence Kai We will also initiate or ganisational change Previ ously UFI internal meet ings for working groups and the hugely popular Special Interest Groups were held on the first day and then the congress was inaugurated in the after noon Now we start off in the morning and in the afternoon the auditorium is dispersed eight Special Interest Groups will convene on various topics We believe that there is something interesting for every participant here What is the future of the UFI and of the medium of exhibitions Kai Exhibitions will always exist in the fu ture too despite the shift towards digital marketing instruments This forecast is based not least on the experience of the global eco nomic crisis of 2008 2009 Back then com panies did cut back severely on their market ing spendings but they stayed with exhibi tions as their best opportunity to reach their customers and to interact with other players from their industries Paul The UFI will not grow as fast as in the last decade simply because most of the globally leading industry players from all around the world have joined us already But thanks to the increasing quality of its of fering it will become even more important www ufi org PB 10 FOCUS TradeFairs Internation al 5 2015 Kai Hattendorf Unsere Branche wird in den nächsten fünf bis zehn Jahren einen schnelleren Wandel erleben als in den letzten fünfzig Jahren Kai Hattendorf In the next five to ten years our industry will see faster changes than it has seen in the past 50 years Paul Woodward Digitali sierung bedeutet nicht dass eine existenzielle Bedrohung für die Mes sewirtschaft entsteht aber Anpassungsbedarf Paul Woodward Digitisa tion does not mean that it brings an existential threat to the exhibition industry but we need to adapt Ph ot o U FI Ph ot o U FI

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