My Fair Plus, a new bridge between trade fairs and local excellence
The new digital platform enhances the experience for visitors and exhibitors, transforming their time in the region into an opportunity to discover its cultural, tourist and food and wine highlights
As the first outcome of the Protocol for the Promotion and Enhancement of Art and Culture, My Fair Plus creates a unique digital ecosystem that integrates culture, tourism, transport, hospitality and food and wine, thereby broadening opportunities to discover and enjoy the region
My Fair Plus – Beyond the Exhibition is launched: the new digital platform promoted by Fondazione Fiera Milano, designed to transform participation in a trade fair into an opportunity to discover and experience the region’s cultural, tourist and food and wine highlights. The aim is to offer visitors and exhibitors the chance to enrich their stay by discovering exhibitions, shows, cultural venues, experiences and products of the highest quality.
My Fair Plus thus links the trade fair calendar with an ever-expanding range of cultural, tourism and food and wine offerings, creating a unique digital ecosystem through which to plan and enjoy an experience that extends beyond the confines of the exhibition centre.
Unveiled today at La Scala in the presence of the Minister for Tourism, Gianmarco Mazzi; the Lombardy Region’s Councillor for Culture, Francesca Caruso; the Superintendent and Artistic Director of La Scala, Fortunato Ortombina; and the President of Fondazione Fiera Milano, Giovanni Bozzetti, the platform represents the first tangible outcome of the Protocol for the Promotion and Enhancement of Art and Culture, born out of the collaboration between Fondazione Fiera Milano, Fiera Milano, the Lombardy Region and the region’s leading cultural bodies. For the first time, the protocol has brought together a broad network of cultural institutions around the same table with the aim of creating a synergy between trade fairs, culture and the local area, combining the international appeal of trade fair events with the richness of Italy’s cultural offering and areas of excellence.
Alongside the cultural institutions involved in the project, My Fair Plus is further enhanced by the contribution of partners active in the sectors of transport, hospitality and food and wine, with the aim of offering an increasingly comprehensive and integrated experience. Trenitalia (FS Group) and Trenord are participating in the initiative as transport partners, facilitating travel planning across the region, whilst MiCoDmc supports visitors and exhibitors in finding accommodation and hospitality solutions.
On the food and wine front, the Qualivita Foundation provides its services for mapping and monitoring events and initiatives linked to PDO and PGI products, whilst the Italian Association of Ambassadors of Taste contributes to the selection of professionals and organisations representing Italian gastronomic excellence, further expanding opportunities to discover the region.
“With My Fair Plus, we are harnessing the power of trade fairs to benefit the local area. Every year, over 4.5 million people visit Fiera Milano’s events, but through the fairs’ communications, we can reach a potential audience of around 15 million people worldwide. It is an extraordinary network of connections that we want to transform into an opportunity to showcase our cultural, tourist and food and wine excellence. My Fair Plus is not simply a digital service for those attending the trade fair, but a tool for transforming trade fair footfall into economic, cultural and tourism value. The trade fair should not merely be a place one arrives at and leaves from, but a gateway to discovering the local area, capable of enriching visitors’ experiences and encouraging them to stay longer. “With My Fair Plus, we are building a digital bridge between the trade fair and the local area, capable of generating new opportunities for learning, discovery and development, and of contributing to the promotion of our finest offerings and our country,” says Giovanni Bozzetti, President of Fondazione Fiera Milano.
“My Fair Plus is a major project aimed at fostering dialogue between the trade fair sector and the cultural and tourism sectors. It is an idea that is not only clever but also timely. The key characteristic of international tourists is that they are tech-savvy: 80 per cent of tourists under 45 plan their visits using social media, and the proportion of those using artificial intelligence has risen by 18 per cent. This project is therefore an innovative and very powerful concept. Italy has the strongest tourism portal in Europe; it will be vital to work together to strengthen the Italian trade fair sector, which is already a major attraction generating 10 billion in economic impact and attracting nearly 19 million visitors – the second largest in Europe, behind Germany, and the fourth largest in the world. In this context, Fiera Milano leads the way and is the driving force behind the entire national trade fair system,” says Gianmarco Mazzi, Minister for Tourism.
“Trade fairs attract millions of people to Lombardy every year. Bringing them to our museums, theatres and cultural venues is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. ‘My Fair Plus’ can transform a business trip into an exploration of the region and ensure that Milan’s appeal brings benefits to the whole region. It is a project that targets new audiences and showcases a widespread cultural heritage, from Milan’s major institutions to the outstanding attractions found in all the other provinces. We want those who come to Lombardy for a trade fair to find a reason to stay and a reason to return,” says Francesca Caruso, Councillor for Culture for the Lombardy Regional Council.
“We are delighted to host the launch of ‘My Fair Plus’, an initiative promoted by Fondazione Fiera Milano that strengthens the link between the trade fair sector and Milan’s cultural heritage. La Scala is an integral part of the city’s life and, through music and performance, helps to convey its identity to the world every day. Creating opportunities for those visiting Milan on business to engage with its cultural highlights means offering a more complete experience of the city and highlighting that spirit of hospitality and openness which has always set it apart,” says Fortunato Ortombina, Superintendent and Artistic Director of La Scala.
“Trenitalia has always been committed to the trade fair and conference sector: it is in this context that our strategic partnership with Fondazione Fiera Milano has been established, with the aim of encouraging the use of the train to travel to events in this sector. The train is the safest, most modern and fastest way to reach the heart of these events – thanks in part to the station located within the Rho exhibition centre – and, more generally, to discover all the tourist and cultural opportunities offered by the city of Milan and the Lombardy region,” says Francesco Cacciapuoti, Sales Director at Trenitalia.
“Every day we operate over 2,400 services serving 460 stations across the region and neighbouring provinces: this is a valuable contribution to business and leisure travel that we are delighted and proud to bring to this Fondazione Fiera Milano project,” commented Andrea Severini, Chief Executive of Trenord. “The partnership launched today has great potential to enhance the region’s tourism offering and promote the local area, creating new opportunities for visitors to Lombardy and fostering increasingly accessible and sustainable transport.” Federica Santini, Chair of Trenord, added: “This collaboration confirms the pivotal role of the railway and of Trenord as a strategic industrial asset, including in supporting the promotion of the excellence that Lombardy has always embodied so well and continues to generate.”
“Connecting the trade fair system with local operators through a multi-sector platform such as My Fair Plus represents a tangible development opportunity for the Italian agri-food sector as well,” said Mauro Rosati, director of the Qualivita Foundation. PDO and PGI products are distinctive expressions of a region’s identity: promoting them means strengthening the roots of ‘Made in Italy’ and promoting food and wine tourism in their places of origin, offering visitors and exhibitors opportunities to discover the communities, traditions and cultural heritage from which these products of excellence stem.”
“The participation of the Italian Association of Ambassadors of Taste in My Fair Plus represents a crucial step in the process of promoting Italy’s agri-food and culinary identity. AdG’s mission has always been based on the ability to network and on the conviction that culinary excellence is a formidable driver of cultural and tourism promotion for the whole country. Collaborating in synergy with a leading institutional partner such as Fondazione Fiera Milano allows us to integrate the prestige of Italy’s finest cuisine into an integrated, high-profile digital ecosystem. “Thanks to this platform, the international visitor flow at the trade fair becomes the ideal vehicle for discovering the authenticity of Italy’s gastronomic heritage, transforming visitors’ stay into a memorable journey through the culture of taste,” says Gianluca De Cristofaro, Director General of the Italian Association of Ambassadors of Taste.
The platform links Fieramilano’s events calendar with that of exhibitions, shows and cultural events, enabling visitors to explore the city’s cultural offerings during their stay. My Fair Plus also offers the chance to explore Milan through themed itineraries dedicated to its diverse identities, from the design and innovation districts to lesser-known yet places that represent the city’s cultural heritage. To complete the experience, MIA – an AI Concierge – guides users with personalised suggestions, itineraries and content tailored to their interests and the length of their stay.
My Fair Plus will also offer access to a selection of experiences and venues representing culinary and wine excellence, enabling visitors and exhibitors to discover products, itineraries and offerings linked to the gastronomic traditions of Lombardy and Italy. This marks a further step in the development of an integrated ecosystem which, through a single point of access, connects trade fairs, culture, tourism, transport, hospitality and food and wine, thereby multiplying opportunities to explore and enjoy the region.
The platform is designed to guide exhibitors and visitors through the various stages of their experience: during the planning stage, they can access a desktop website packed with content, maps and useful information to help them organise their stay in Milan; during their visit, however, the same digital environment transforms into a web app accessible via a QR code within the exhibition grounds – with no download required – featuring an interface designed to guide users through the exhibition spaces and the opportunities offered by the local area.
Partners in the initiative include: Fondazione Fiera Milano, Fiera Milano Spa, the Lombardy Region, the ADI Design Museum, the Italian Association of Ambassadors of Taste, the Italian Environment Fund (ETS), the Luigi Rovati Foundation, the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Milan Foundation, the Pirelli Foundation, the Pomeriggi Musicali Foundation, the Prada Foundation, the Stelline Foundation, the Qualivita Foundation, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation (Bergamo), the Teatro Sociale di Busto Arsizio Foundation, Gallerie d’Italia, MiCoDMC, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, the Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, the Piccolo Teatro di Milano Teatro d’Europa, the Parish of St Ambrose – Museum Section: Ambrosius. The Basilica’s Treasury, Brera Art Gallery, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Civico di Rho, TAM Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Teatro Elfo Puccini, Teatro Franco Parenti, Teatro Lirico G. Gaber, Teatro Manzoni, Teatro Nazionale, Trenitalia, Trenord, Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana and Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano, Villa Carlotta (Como), Vittoriale degli Italiani (Gardone Riviera).
My Fair Plus forms part of the wider ‘Alliance for Made in Italy’ initiative, promoted by Fondazione Fiera Milano to consolidate the role of the trade fair system as a strategic infrastructure serving the country’s economic, social and cultural development.
“Alliance for Made in Italy” is an initiative promoted by Fondazione Fiera Milano that brings together industry professionals, trade fair organisers and trade associations, alongside Fiera Milano S.p.A., to foster a dialogue on the role of the trade fair sector in the country’s economic, social and cultural development. Among the issues that emerged during the initial meetings were: the need to enhance the region’s appeal, develop greater synergy with trade fairs, and encourage the involvement of the hospitality and transport sectors, both of which are key assets for increasing accommodation capacity for exhibitors and visitors. The ‘Alliance for Made in Italy’ forms part of a broader commitment by Fondazione Fiera Milano, which is not limited to fostering dialogue between institutions, operators and associations, but also provides analytical tools and training programmes. The Research Centre produces research and in-depth analyses on trade fairs, conferences and events, contributing to the dissemination of knowledge within the sector, whilst Accademia Fiera Milano, through master’s programmes and courses, trains new talent and offers professionals opportunities for specialisation.