UFI Comment
Measurements
you can trust
et me start with three short
headlines from recent months:
– In 2018, exhibition space sold
in Asia grew 4.8%
– Exhibitions generated US$325bn in business
sales during 2018
– More than 50% of exhibition companies in
Europe are looking to expand their business
into at least one additional geographical
market.
All three are taken from media reporting
on research data that UFI published in
recent months, working together with many
industry associations and collaborating
with hundreds of companies active in our
sector around the world. It is a vital part of
UFI’s role and mission as the global trade
association for our exhibition industry to
provide data and insights. We devote a lot
of time and resources to this, and we are
delighted to be seen as the leader for neutral
data in the industry.
When I was invited to join the board
meeting of one UFI member last month,
the CEO shared that the UFI data had been
one key sources in the company’s decision-
making process to invest millions into new
developments. But he also shared that, from
his conversations within the industry, he
noted that the size and scope of UFI research
available is not known to everyone.
Allow me, therefore, to use my column
this time to run through the vastly expanded
main research offers from UFI for you, our
members. You will find them online at www.
ufi.org/research.
Today, UFI delivers research for the
industry in three dimensions: globally,
regionally, and topically.
Global reports, like the bi-annual Global
Barometer, take the pulse of our industry
around the world. But they don’t just deliver
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Issue 5 2019
global ‘headline figures’. Based on well-
established global standards, they break
down the data into regions and markets.
This allows you to really compare market
trends and growth opportunities in, for
instance, Asia with those in America, based
on the same data points. In an industry
where a lot of data is market-specific and
delivered in ‘data dialects’, this alignment
provides a lot of additional value. We can
deliver that because of the unique UFI
network and collaboration with exhibition
industry associations all around the world.
To take the Barometer as an example again,
here we work together with 14 exhibition
industry associations, from SISO in the USA
to EEIA in Australia, from the AEO in the UK
to AMPROFEC in Mexico.
We apply the same approach of
collaboration on the regional reports – did
you know, for instance, that more than
a dozen European exhibition industry
associations work with our research
team to produce the annual Eurofairs
Statistics? Annual, updated metrics on the
Kai Hattendorf
UFI Managing Director
development of our industry for Europe
as well as Asia/Pacific are also core UFI
research products. And we are currently
doing fieldwork on an initial report to
track our industry’s development in Latin
America.
Last but not least, there is topical research.
Most of you will be familiar with the projects
we run with Explori, our research partner,
tracking the changing expectations of
tradeshow visitors and exhibitors. For the
current Visitor Insights, we worked with
input from more than 13,000 tradeshow
visitors from 135 countries to identify
trends relating to visitor behaviour. Their
main ‘pain points’ as well as their growing
expectations towards sustainable action
from organisers, venues, and service
providers have been the topic of dozens of
presentations and industry discussions since
we released this report. At the upcoming UFI
Congress in Bangkok, we will release a new
report, focusing this time again on exhibitor
trends.
Besides these reports, there are hundreds
of best practice cases available in UFI
research compendiums – from marketing to
operations, and from sustainability policies
to implementations of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals.
Let me encourage you to make good
use of all these resources available on the
UFI website at ufi.org/research – and don’t
hesitate to contact me personally with
feedback.
Rest assured, we will continue on the path
to deliver data and insights that help you
drive your business forward – we have a
number of projects in the pipeline, together
with core partners like SISO, or through the
global collaboration with fellow global MICE
trade associations AIPC and ICCA.
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk