Consulting and lobbying boutique company CBBS Management Consulting and Business Building Company has forged a new initiative with central and southeast European associations in an attempt to bring more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the exhibition fold.

A memorandum of understanding between CBBS, Central European Trade Fair Alliance (CEFA) and International exhibition statistics union Centrex is the latest hope for increasing regional backing from the SMEs that comprise trade fair exhibitors.

“The majority of exhibitors, visitors and partners participating at our events are SMEs and SME associations,” says CBBS CEO Berislav Cižmek. “We are proposing to the director general of Enterprise and Industry at the European Commission that the trade fair industry in Europe is considered an important platform and support for the future growth, development and internationalisation of European SMEs in the markets of Europe and worldwide.”

The companies recently took part in a public consultation with the enterprise and industry directorate in Brussels, titled Small Business, Big World; a partnership to support greater and more efficient internationalisation of Europe’s SMEs. CEFA and Centrex members organise more than 1,000 trade and consumer events, representing the trade fair industry in 16 countries and its combined audience of 200 million inhabitants.

The group’s EU members include Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and incoming EU member Croatia. EU candidate countries include FYR Macedonia and Montenegro, potential EU candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, and the non-EU countries Moldova and Ukraine.

Micro businesses yielding great numbers

There are 25 million non-primary private enterprises in Europe (28 countries of the European Economic Area plus candidate countries to the European Union). Almost all of these are SMEs and more than 90 per cent are micro businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

The typical European SME for example is a micro business employing three persons, while the average company size in Europe is five people. SMEs employ more than 53 per cent of Europe’s workforce (around 95 million people) and are responsible for half of Europe’s total turnover. They are a key source of jobs and a breeding ground for business ideas. Small businesses are the main driver for innovation and employment as well as promoting social and local integration in Europe.

“We need to provide overall information about shows from both a visitor and non-visitor perspective. What can visitors from SMEs expect from trade shows?” asks Cižmek. “We need to offer visitor, transport and event service packages as well as things such as subsidising attendance.”

Given only five to seven per cent of those 25 million SMEs in Europe are exhibiting today, there is a huge well of potential exhibitors to draw from. “We need to change visitor perspectives,” says Cižmek.

Readers can follow the efforts of CBBS, CEFA and Centrex online at: exhibition-world.net.