Trade Fairs: An Essential Tool to Compete in the New International Landscape

At Smart Building Expo to Open Up to New Markets!

In 2024, there were 831 trade fairs held in Italy, and 866 are expected in 2025. These figures, provided by AEFI (the Italian Exhibition and Trade Fair Association), confirm that the gap accumulated during the Covid years (in 2020 there were only 266 events!) has finally been closed, and Italian trade fairs are back on track.

This is good news not only for the approximately 17,000 professionals employed in the sector—which, with a turnover of €4 billion, is the fourth largest in the world after China, the USA, and Germany—but above all for the entire Made in Italy industry. Trade fairs are a crucial infrastructure for boosting business: just consider that the five main sectors hosting events (food & beverage, new technologies, fashion & beauty, construction & furniture, and leisure) generate 30% of the national industrial production and around 63% of exports.

Today, the importance of trade fairs is growing significantly, as the current complex geopolitical situation is forcing companies to look for new markets for their products—a goal where trade fairs play one of their key roles.
It’s no coincidence that the national trade fair system has been included in the Italian Export Action Plan for non-EU markets announced by the Meloni government in March this year.
In this context, trade fairs are and will continue to be a crucial driver, both by attracting a massive influx of foreign buyers to events held at major Italian venues and by promoting dedicated Made in Italy events directly in the most promising international markets.

MIBA and Smart Building Expo are also working hard to offer participating companies the opportunity to open up new business channels, through a careful selection of potential buyers and the organization of their presence in Milan. This activity is carried out in cooperation with ICE (Italian Trade Agency) and, in the 2023 edition alone, brought 427 buyers from 72 countries to Milan, resulting in 6,189 business meetings.