In the last 10 years, the market for exhibitions has grown more than 100 per cent in four Latin American countries,” says the first vice-chair of UFI’s Latin American chapter, Ligia Amorim, of Nuernbergmesse Brasil.
Amorim’s role is to establish and tackle pressing issues affecting the region over the next three years. These include the wider use of reliable statistics and better quality data, education, taxes, working in closer co-operation with other Latin American countries and the particular challenges faced by family businesses.
“We have a huge logistical and education challenge when we consider the lack of infrastructure in terms of roads, ports, pavilions and an urgent improvement in the manpower of the sector. This new chapter recognises the growing importance of the Americas to the global economy and to the global exhibition industry as a result. UFI will provide programmes and services that will contribute to the professional quality of the exhibition industry.”
Economic impact
The improvements Amorim speaks of will in turn open the region to a greater quality of events, enabling international companies and new partnerships to flourish among Latin America’s fluctuating economic fortunes.
It is timely. While improving growth forecasts in Europe reflect a genuine change in fortunes for the euro region’s peripheral economies; years of BRIC nation-on-the-rise publicity in Brazil have given way to stagnation in the last three years, suffering a remarkable downturn in the months leading to June. Its GDP shrank by 0.6 per cent, Brazil’s first confirmed recession since the global financial crisis of 2008.
These economic woes have set in place a fierce battle on the political stage, due in no small part to Brazil’s average economic growth of four per cent between 2003 to 2009, reaching seven per cent in 2010 under President Dilma Rousseff’s predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazil is not alone however. Argentina and Venezuela have both suffered the consequences of their own policy errors.
Viewed through the prism of global exhibitions, Brazil has assumed the role of leading exhibitions destination in Latin America and its trade show market has grown substantially over the last years.
Trade fairs of international scope are often held in the city that is home to the greatest number of industries, and São Paulo is just such a city. According to the national exhibition association UBRAFE, its members hold 200 trade fairs annually and in 2013 they attracted a total of 48,000 exhibitors from Brazil and 8,000 from abroad, with a total number of 5.4 million visitors.
Newevents Global is a international consultant and exhibition organiser based in Portugal and in Brazil, and aims to develop educational and training programmes in the exhibition industry – serving as a consultant to several exhibition organisers in this region.
In Brazil it is responsible for representing US-based association IAEE, developing its Certified in Exhibition Management (CEM) programme. a recognised and unique educational program to the exhibition industry which gives an international certification to events and exhibition professionals.
Antonio Manuel Brito says that the industry in Latin America is growing every day.
“Countries like Brazil, Colombia, or in part Argentina are growing but there are another countries like for example Peru or Bolivia and Panama, I believe in a near future will be very important.
“The exhibition industry is the image and the barometer of the economy in each country and if the economy is growing up also the exhibitions grow too. However the exhibition industry in Latin America needs to have more and better professionals who know the real needs of the economic sectors and the best skills to understand the changes of globalisation.
"So in my opinion they need to invest in education and training to know better the new trends and at least learn the mistakes of the last years in the exhibition industry. “It is a challenge but at the same time it is a great opportunity."
It’s a view echoed by Jose Navarro, general director of organiser EJ Krause Mexico and board member of UFI’s Latin America Chapter.
“One of the key issues is understanding the numbers of the industry, and doing an evaluation of the industry here. There aren’t a lot of statistics, we have very little economic information in terms of what we are moving in terms of money and in terms of people. And that’s not only a weakness in Mexico.”
This would be of particular value following recent reforms in Mexico. According to Navarro, knowledge of the growth sectors in Mexico, or any other Latin America exhibition destination, would help attract more global organisers.
“Mexico’s constitutional laws have changed, and that will open the country to certain markets. They have had reforms on labour law, tax law, and energy law that affects all related sectors,” he says. “Energy in Mexico used to be provided solely by the state. There’s now a possibility for private industry to generate and sell its own electricity, something we call co-generation. Our energy shows have been growing steadily but this year the interest for Mexico has really surprised us. A lot of companies are finding Mexico has undergone a real important change.
“As an organiser I would be looking for industries related to the local reforms to grow more than the economy is growing.”
Juan Pablo Maglier, is another member of UFI’s Latin America chapter, and head of institutional relations at Argentina’s La Rural, the Buenos Aires Exhibition Centre. This venue is one of the leading centres for trade shows, events, conferences, conventions and events in Argentina and a pioneer in Latin America.
“We create opportunities and we promote the realisation of business,” he says. “Through it we not only attract investment and generate jobs, but we enable links and encounters between different sectors of society and different communities (medical, scientific, academic, business and intellectual and so on).”
In 2013 La Rural organised 11 fairs, hosted 22 exhibitions and received 88 third party congresses, conventions and seminars. More than 7,000 exhibitors opened the doors of their businesses to nearly four million visitors. “During that year we received important events like the tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Noval Djokovic; the Interamerican Congress of Cardiology; and some that are with us many years ago the Book Fair; arteBa; International Auto Show; Traditional and Rural Expo, now in its 128 editions,” says Maglier.
The Foundation for International Fair of Cochabamba Bolivia (FEICOBOL), is a non-profit private organisation on a mission to bring Cochabamba’s fairs to a standard competitive with the international market. The foundation contributes to regional development providing integral services with adequate and competent resources, through planning, promoting and implementing business activities. It also runs the Alalay fairground, 150,000sqm located six kilometres from the centre of Cochabamba city.
General director Eunice Acha says that by analysing different factors of the Latin American exhibition industry, without generalising and homogenising the situation of countries, common elements can be demonstrated in certain countries, identifying two groups, with their respective realities.
One is the developed countries, those already positioned in the market with exhibition culture, these include Brazil and Mexico, followed by Argentina and Colombia. One is those countries with an exhibition culture that is being developed, such as Chile, Venezuela, El Salvador and Bolivia.
“The formation of regional chapters, such as UFI Latin American chapter, has contributed to its members or affiliated entities to position themselves with greater intensity in the global market,” says Acha.
“The impulse that these regional chapters provide to professionalisation of the activity in our region and the support they provide to the fair activity in the region has been and is decisive, plus for strategic promotion, education, information and networking markets in Latin America.
“The quality of the local exhibition operators has developed, they are adapting to economic and business needs of each moment and each region, with the aim of strengthening trade, technological advances and knowledge sharing.”
Development at this year’s World Meetings Forum (WMF) painted Latin America as an increasingly sought-after destination for business events.
This year’s event differed from last year’s. The World Meetings Forum has grown into two shows with distinct remits. WMF shares its billing with the World Trade Show Forum (WTSF).
The show manager and the people that runs exhibitions or trade shows sometimes don’t deal with hotels or suppliers that the meeting planners and trade show managers use.
World Meetings Forum chief and CEO of Mexican publisher MasExpos, Rafael Hernandez, claims there’s more international discovery of Mexico’s MICE offering to come, having successfully seen the second edition of his event gather interest from associations and future partners.
A number of developments were particularly important to me this year, he explains. “Firstly we have formed an alliance with IMEX and Ray Bloom, the result of an enquiry to see how we can work together that resulted in a partnership.
“The first step we are taking together is creating the Future Leaders Forum for next year, presented by IMEX. It’s a huge step and the people we have spoken to have observed that. IMEX is a respected trade show and Ray Bloom is a respected businessman.”
Hernandez is now working with the Convention Industry Council (CIC) to evaluate WMF’s education content, so that its conferences can earn its participants the credits needed for Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) certification.
“This is also a big step, because everyone who comes next year will gain value because not only all the content that we have, but because it will be part of the points you have to earn for certification,” he comments.
Acha adds that it is important to highlight the effect on attracting international customers.
Latin America is witnessing the formation of regional associations and increased interest from global organisers. The challenge for this growing exhibition industry is to provide them with the servces and the reporting that allow us to convince the rest of the world to join them.
This article was first published in issue 4/4 of EW. Any comments? Email Antony Reeve-Crook
