Trade fairs will be key to reviving the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Spanish Trade Fair Association (AFE) quantifies the economic contribution generated annually by the trade fair industry in Spain at 5,000 million euros. It is a sector that has proven to be an excellent marketing tool, highlighting the advantages of personal contact in a short space of time. However, the coronavirus health crisis has led to the cancellation of around 100 trade fairs in our country, and has almost completely paralysed or postponed trade fair activity in the first half of the year.

“At the moment, the markets on which the sectors depend for marketing are closed all over the world. Mass cancellations of events have also arrived, which means that the entire global exhibition and event industry is grinding to a halt,” says Kai Hattendorf, CEO of The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI).

The consequences of the health crisis for the exhibition industry are immediate and missed shows will have a very high opportunity cost for exhibiting companies and their visitors, as they will be unable to do business and close deals.

For this reason, it is essential to recover the activity of this sector as soon as possible, as trade fairs have become consolidated as a key instrument for boosting business, and their contribution to the economy and their contribution to the dissemination of knowledge are highly valued strengths. It should also be noted that, despite the negative outlook, they have demonstrated their capacity to react to circumstances, in many cases placing their infrastructures and resources at the service of the community, as has been the case of Easyfairs in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands.

In this sense, the Empack and Logistics & Automation 2020 team, led by Raquel Carboneras, continues to work to offer the best possible event this autumn, to present the latest in logistics, packaging technology, packaging and printing. In fact, to date, 70% of last year’s exhibitors have confirmed their participation in the show.

Carboneras highlights in a letter addressed to exhibitors, partners and visitors, that at the end of this crisis, professional trade fairs will once again take centre stage to reactivate the economy, and trusts that after the forced social distancing, companies will need a professional environment in which to meet face to face with their clients and thus recover personal contact.

On the other hand, he assures that trade fairs will be a meeting point where they can reflect on the future. Conferences, talks and success stories will flood these spaces and help companies not only to catch up, but also to prepare for the challenges of the future.

In addition, the paradigm shift following the coronavirus health crisis is likely to bring new opportunities for companies to diversify their offerings or new strategies for engaging and collaborating with their suppliers and complementary companies. Thus, it will be necessary to analyse the changes in people’s consumption habits, something that companies will have to see as an opportunity, concludes Raquel Carboneras.

Empack and Logistics & Automation 2020 will be held on 25 and 26 November at IFEMA, and will feature major new features. The first of these is the extension of the trade fair’s profile to the intralogistics automation sector: a key element for saving costs and time and being more efficient, something that has proved crucial during the management of the healthcare crisis. In addition to this novelty, the Robotic & Automation Village, which will act as a nexus of the most cutting-edge technology in automation and robotics, applicable to packaging and logistics; Empack and Logistics & Automation will also be the stage for showcasing emerging technologies for the packaging sector: start-ups and technically innovative companies will showcase solutions in virtual and augmented reality, IoT, Big data, etc., applied to logistics processes. Empack will also have an area dedicated to designers of packaging and POS solutions.

After the last edition, which managed to beat the record number of visitors (11,200 professionals), and bring together more than 400 exhibitors, Logistics & Automation and Empack have established themselves as the annual meeting on the future of logistics, packaging technology, packaging and packaging.

Easyfairs: first private trade fair organiser in Spain and Portugal

Empack and Logistics and Distribution are fairs of the Easyfairs group, a Belgian multinational based in Brussels that creates and implements events in 17 countries, showcasing the latest developments and trends, in line with its motto “Visit the future”.

It currently organises 220 events, manages 10 exhibition venues in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, and employs more than 750 people. In the 2018-2019 financial year it generated revenues in excess of €170 million.

The group started its activity in Spain and Portugal in 2007, becoming the first private organiser in both countries. Its shows in Spain have established themselves as unmissable meeting points in different sectors: MetalMadrid, in industrial innovation; Empack, in packaging, labelling, brand packaging and POS; Logistics & Distribution, a leading trade fair in intralogistics, warehousing, automation, digitalisation and handling; and Pump & Valves and Maintenance, in the industrial sector.

In 2018, Easyfairs was named best company of the year in Belgium, and in 2019 “Best Managed Company” by Deloitte. It is currently ranked 18th in the list of the best event management companies in the world.

For more information, please visit:

Logistics & Automation Madrid: https://www.logisticsmadrid.com/es

Empack and Packaging Innovations Madrid: https://www.empackmadrid.com/

Press contact: Cristina Martínez

cristina.martinez@asecom.es 676 32 72 72 60