Interview
Driving for expansion while staying humble – key to international success at IEG
Francesco Santa, CEO of IEG Middle East and IEG Arabia and international business development director IEG Group, tells EW’ s Iain Stirling about the global expansion plans
EG has noticeably
I been expanding its international presence. What are the primary drivers? One of the primary targets of IEG is to make our shows in Italy stronger, especially the international ones where only the strongest exhibitions survive. Our primary target is to make the shows more international with more international exhibitors and buyers attending.
We started developing our international brands four or five years ago, not least to let the world know about our shows in Italy.
With SIGEP( the gelato, bakery & coffee expo) in Italy, we want to increase international participation, and having a successful SIGEP in China( a very important market for us) means the word about the edition in Italy spreads too. Our message is:‘ Come and exhibit and visit our major event in Italy that is much bigger and you can find exhibitors from everywhere in the world.’
Different markets present unique opportunities and challenges, but how do you identify new international markets for exhibitions? There are two main criteria. First, which markets do we want to attract to Italy. If we’ re talking about Vicenzaoro, the world’ s longestrunning gold and jewellery B2B event, for example, where we already have lots of exhibitors, we consider from where we would like to attract more exhibitors. Southeast Asia was one of the markets of interest, so we decided to have an edition of Vicenzaoro in Singapore. Now we are able to attract
Above: Francesco Santa
them also to Vicenzaoro in Italy. There is another driver. Our exhibitors sometimes ask us to go somewhere which is how we came to launch the fitness event in Saudi Arabia. Our exhibitors in Dubai were asking us to go there.
When you expand, how do you balance maintaining the core identity and quality of your established shows while adapting to local market needs? We don’ t use the term‘ geo cloning’. We don’ t think,‘ We have a successful show in Italy, let’ s just replicate it in another region and we will have the same success’. That is one of the biggest mistakes an exhibition organiser can make. You always need to analyse the market where you wish to go, not only the economic characteristics, but also the cultural characteristics of the place you want to expand. You need to balance your brand identity with being able to adapt.
If you look at SIGEP, the branding is similar whether in Italy or Singapore or China. But what people like in China is completely different from what they like in Italy. You need to adapt the concept and even the timing of the show.
Our show in Saudi started at 3pm in the afternoon and goes until 11pm, something you cannot do in Italy or in Singapore.
Left: IEG’ s success in Dubai has got the organiser fighting fit for a foray into Saudi Arabia
What about digital transformation? Has this played a role in your global expansion? I’ m not a fan of hybrid events and happy that the exhibition industry, after the pandemic, showed everyone that people need to meet in person. Digital is important, of course, and is
42 Issue 2 2025 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk