Fondazione Fiera Milano UFI sponsor

Zagreb, 17 June 2004, Fondazione Fiera Milano is the “sponsor of the year” of  UFI (Global Association of the Exhibition Industry). This is the first time an exhibition authority -- also a member of UFI -- has been authorized to be the sponsor of the year and is therefore being promoted through the association.

For Fondazione Fiera Milano, this included taking part in the UFI summer seminar from 14 to 16 June at the Zagabria Exhibition Complex  where the new Milan exhibition system was presented in a space specially fitted for this purpose.

The various sessions of the seminar were attended by Corrado Peraboni, managing director of Fondazione Fiera Milano, vice president of the European Chapter and member of the UFI executive committee. Also present were Graziella Giobbi Martini, member of the board of Fondazione Fiera Milano and founder of Macef (International Home Show)  and Marco Ambrosini, president of the Villa Erba Spa exhibition complex and member of UFI.

The huge size of the Milan exhibition project generated a great amount of interest among the participants (more than 140 delegates from 32 countries, 30 speakers and opinion leaders and 11 exhibitors). Added to this, an Internet connection at the stand allowed visitors to see the state of progress of work via a web cam that constantly took photos of the construction site, and also find out the latest news on the call for tendersfor the redevelopment of the historical exhibition complex, for which the winning project will be announced by 31 July.

Once the project has been completed, there will be two complexes: the New Complex in Rho-Pero (in the immediate outskirts of Milan – on the Milan/Malpensa route), now under construction and entirely self-funded by Fondazione Fiera Milano, to be inaugurated on 2 April 2005; and the City Complex, or the space that will remain the property of Fiera Milano after the sale and redevelopment of part of the existing exhibition complex and for which a tender procedure is in progress.
The two complexes will work together on more than 710,000 square meters of gross floor space (470,000 square meters of gross exhibition area and 60,000 square meters for outdoor exhibitions), forming one of the largest exhibition systems in the world.

Fondazione Fiera Milano is a private economic entity with a controlling shareholding in Fiera Milano Spa – which in turn leads a group of 11 companies – and in Sviluppo Sistema Fiera Spa, and with a relative majority shareholding in Villa Erba Spa (an outstanding exhibition space on Lake Como that hosts high-profile exhibitions, conferences and company conventions). It also owns the existing exhibition complex in Milan and the area in Rho-Pero where the New Complex is being built.