Tecnargilla 2016: Decline of a Trade Fair?

We saw it coming.

The previous editions of this trade fair offered warnings of the fiasco that occurred this year.

In essence, the increasingly smaller presence of international exhibitors and visitors became even more marked this year when the organizers of the fair, despite their immense efforts to attract visitors, allowed the few people that did attend to be “kidnapped” by one of the fair’s main exhibitors and stalwarts and taken to another event, with all expenses paid, that took place some 300 kilometres away.

What sense does it make for an exhibitor to attend a trade fair where this type of thing is allowed to happen? And even worse, what sense does it make for these big exhibitors to invest in a major presence at the trade fair only to then take visitors to a different event that they’ve organized themselves?

The outcome of this ridiculous state of affairs is that what was once the most important international construction-supplies trade fair for the Italian, Balkan, Middle Eastern and Russian markets has now become an insular, parochial event; a second-division trade fair that is of little interest to visitors.

On the positive side, we should at least mention the presence of the few international exhibitors that did attend. Once again, the presence of MORTE in the ceramic extrusion die sector stood out for the high ratings the visitors gave to our products.