Poland
Exhibition echoes
from the Chamber
EW visited the Polish Chamber
of Exhibition Industry, the key
national industry association for
promoting the sector in Poland.
Answers by Przemysław Trawa,
Marzenna Łukaszewicz, and Beata
Kozyra, President, Executive Director
and CEO, respectively, of the Council.
EW: What is the current scale of the
Polish exhibition market?
According to Polish Chamber of
Exhibition Industry (PCEI) data, the
Polish exhibition market value is 2.5bn
PLN (US$640m). More than 95% of
companies operating on the domestic
exhibition market are Polish.
Poland is at the heart of Europe
and its position has influenced the
development of the economy and of
the Polish exhibition market. Poland
has enjoyed uninterrupted GDP
growth for 25 years.
EW: What data do you have on
exhibition visitor numbers?
Recently released (audited by
CENTREX) data can be found in the
PCEI report Exhibitions in Poland in
2018.
In 2018, there were 201 exhibitions
monitored by PCEI . There are also
a further 200 exhibitions organised
annually, but which do not undergo
statistical audits. About 30% of
exhibitions monitored by PIPT can
be categorised as large and medium
international events.
Fairs centred on consumer goods
and services for the household and
family have certainly increased,
as have motor shows. The largest
of them, organised at Poznań
International Fair, attracted over
111,000 visitors. The AGROTECH
agricultural fair in Kielce drew 71,000
visitors and the Book Fair in Krakow
was visited by over 66,000 people.
Other strong industries include
construction, with the International
Construction and Architecture Fair
BUDMA, MTP Poznań attracting 1,000
exhibitors and 50,000 visitors.
Leisure and entertainment shows
are doing well, with Multigenre Fan
Convention PYRKON, MTP Poznań
attracting 43,000 visitors and PGA
Poznań Game Arena, MTP Poznań
46,000 visitors.
In Kielce, security, fire protection
and defence are big sectors for
tradeshows, with International
Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO
Kielce attracting 625 exhibitors and
34,106 visitors. The city’s International
Fair of Plastics and Rubber Processing
PLASTPOL Kielce is also a big affair,
with 812 exhibitors from 39 countries
and 19,000 visitors.
EW: What can you say about the
contractor market?
Exhibitions in Poland 2009 – 2018*
Poland boasts
36 serious
professional
tradefair
organisers.
PCEI research
from 2018
classifies 19
exhibition venues
with 5,000sqm
minimum,
which are used
regularly for
tradefairs and
exhibitions.
Their total
exhibition space
is 443,902sqm.
Poland ranked
16th among the
28 national and
regional markets
covered by the
PCEI survey,
the results of
which were
included in the
UFI World Map
of Exhibition
Venues (June
2018). Poznan
International Fair
has 109,071sqm
of indoor space,
and is the 46th
largest such
facility in the
world.
There are over 120 companies on the
Polish market designing and building
exhibition stands, a dozen companies
specialising in transport and tradefair
logistics, and several companies
specialising in digital services for
the exhibition industry. In addition
to servicing the Polish market, these
companies are becoming more active
on overseas markets. There is also a
growing hybridisation of activities -
companies cater not only for tradefairs
but also for conferences and various
types of events.
The most dynamically developing
events are aimed at enthusiasts -
from vintage car shows, through
fishing, board games and multimedia
entertainment. A relatively new trend
is ‘survival’. New tradefairs are also
appearing.
Organisers are still looking for more
attractive forms, combining traditional
exhibitions with conferences,
workshops and online content sharing.
One visible trend is to enrich
tradefairs with interactive forms
of presenting the offer, and VR
technology is more common.
The engagement of the event
participant is crucial here. As they
head towards further digitisation and
realise more hybrid events, tradefairs
are extending the offer of their
services with marketing, research and
business analysis for exhibitors, and
programmes aimed at attracting more
foreign customers.
*The data below refers only to the exhibition statistics audited by CENTREX
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Number of exhibitions 206 227 208 221 216 214 200 211 193 201
Total contracted
exhibition space (sqm) 576,559 678,065 675,907 742,369 682,469 817,481 764,908 838,234 785,187 870,838
Total number of exhibitors 26,519 27,876 28,770 27,810 27,828 28,799 28,392 28,896 26,645 27,381
- including international
exhibitors 4,421 4,108 4,627 4,461 4,380 4,790 4,674 4,753 5,853 6,240
883,330 1,013,846 1,126,267 1,162,391 1,249,352 1,378,209 1,436,083 1,539,000 1,503,313 1,621,052
Number of visitors
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Issue 5 2019
59